This Beloved Panera Soup Returns To The Menu For The First Time In 7 Years

Fast casual chain Panera Bread has just dropped its fall menu lineup, featuring some new items and the return of a few old ones. The most notable returning menu item is the black bean soup, and if you don't ever recall seeing this one, that's because it has been gone for a whole seven years. It's a vegetarian soup that includes black beans, lima beans, and potatoes, and it's flavored with aromatics like celery, red bell pepper, onions, carrots, lemon juice, and garlic.

The black bean soup is one of those items with a following. There are even online petitions requesting its return, like one from Change.org with an impassioned plea: "Its departure from the chain has impacted many. Vegetarians and vegans were able to find comfort in knowing that they had options for a soup at this fine establishment, just as any meat-eater would. It was a delicious, reliable, and revolutionary dish and should be brought back into stores immediately." So the petitioners have finally gotten what they've wanted, and the soup is back starting today. Forget about Starbucks' pumpkin spice lattes; it's officially bean soup season.

Aside from the black bean soup, there are five other items on Panera's fall menu this year. The new items include a Harvest Medley Chicken Salad, which includes a whole grain blend, grilled chicken, mandarin oranges, feta cheese, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, toasted pecans, and crunchy beet strips on top of a bed of arugula and mixed green lettuces, tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette. Then there's also a new Crème Brûlée Latte, which features crème brûlée syrup, whipped cream, and salted caramel sugar.

Autumn Squash Soup (which we think is Panera's best seasonal soup) is back, along with Hearty Fireside Chili (a beef, tomato, and kidney bean number). To top things off, Panera's seasonal Pumpkin Cookie has also returned. And for its advertising campaign, Panera is going nostalgic: Its commercials for the menu feature Matt Czuchry and Jared Padalecki, who played boyfriend roles on the show "Gilmore Girls." There's nothing like beans and boyfriends to kick off fall, right?