Minestrone Soup

This Minestrone Soup recipe is an easy-to-make version of the classic Italian Minestrone – packed with vegetables, beans and pasta, it’s a healthy and hearty meal that’s on the table in 30 minutes!

 

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There’s truly nothing better than a big bowl of hearty soup, especially on a cold day. When we make homemade soup, we love filling it with all the best, filling ingredients, and this Minestrone Soup Recipe is absolutely packed with all kinds of vegetables, protein-packed beans, and hearty pasta. It makes a delicious lunch or dinner, it’s a great meal-prep recipe, it freezes well with a few simple tips and tricks, and it’s full of nutrition. Trust us, you’re going to love it as much as we do!

Minestrone soup is a classic Italian hearty soup that’s been around for centuries. Historically, it was poor man’s or peasant’s soup, made with leftover vegetables and other inexpensive and readily available ingredients.

Today, the most common vegetables found in minestrone include onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and tomatoes. It’s most often made with beans, not meat, although some variations of the recipe include bacon, pancetta, or meatballs. It almost always contains pasta, and it’s a delicious clean-out-the-fridge meal that’s so easy to customize to whatever veggies you’ve got on hand, fresh, frozen or canned.

Because it’s classically Italian, Minestrone is often served with grated parmesan on top and a fresh loaf of crusty bread.

While it’s possible to use frozen or canned vegetables when making Minestrone Soup, we recommend choosing fresh vegetables that are in season for the best flavour.

Start by sautéing onions, garlic, celery, and carrots to build a flavourful base for the soup. Sautéing the vegetables first creates a lot more flavour than simply boiling them in liquid, so be sure not to skip this step.

Use a high-quality stock, either homemade or store-bought. Vegetable or chicken stock both work very well when making Minestrone Soup.

Add the zucchini and green beans toward the end of the cooking process to make sure they don’t over-cook and keep their green colour. The other hardier vegetables can be sautéed and boiled in the soup without disintegrating and losing their colour.

Dried herbs like oregano, basil, and thyme can be a powerful way to add flavour, so be sure not to skip them.

If your stock is already salted, be cautious with adding more salt during the cooking process. Adjust the seasoning at the end of cooking to make sure it tastes just right.

Take care when adding the pasta – if you’re going to serve the soup right away, add the pasta at the end of cooking. If you’re going to freeze or store some of the soup for later, cook the pasta separately and add a small amount to each bowl of soup as you serve it.

Be sure to drain and rinse the beans before you add them to the soup. This will remove the excess salt and liquid from the beans that will negatively affect the taste and texture of the soup.

Adding a pinch of sugar tempers the acidity of the tomatoes in the soup, giving it a smooth flavour. Taste it before serving to see if it needs a pinch or sugar or salt.

If the soup is too thick, add some more stock or water to reach the right consistency.

Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and dried herbs. These can add a lot of flavour. Be sure to sauté the veggies at the beginning of the cooking process to add flavour.

Be sure to add the vegetables that cook quickly (the zucchini and the green beans) later in the cooking process so they don’t over-cook.

Unfortunately, there’s no saving over-cooked pasta. If you’re worried about the pasta over-cooking, cook pasta separately and add it to each bowl of soup just before serving.

If the tomato flavour is too intense and causing the flavour of the soup to become acidic, balance it out with a pinch or two of sugar.

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One of our favourite kitchen items for making soup recipes like this recipe for Minestrone Soup is an enamelled cast-iron dutch oven pot. Here are some of our favourites:

We love this blue one from Le Creuset (affiliate link) and we use it at least weekly throughout the entire year for soups, stews, sauces, curries, baking bread, and one pot pastas.

A pot like this one is definitely a financial investment for your kitchen, but considering how much we use ours and considering its high quality, it’s definitely a worthy investment. We’ve also used similar cast iron pots from other brands, like THIS ONE from KitchenAid and THIS ONE from Lodge Cast Iron (both affiliate links) if you’re looking for something a little less expensive but still high quality that will work just as well.

And maybe the most cost-effective Dutch Oven we’ve used is this Amazon Basics Cast Iron Pot. It’s high-quality and it’s at the perfect price point!

Other than a good sturdy soup pot, you’ll need this basic kitchen equipment to make this minestrone soup recipe (paid links)

• a large knife
• a chopping board
• measuring cups and spoons
• a wooden cooking utensil
• a Soup Ladle

To make this Minestrone soup recipe you’ll need these ingredients (paid links):

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 carrots chopped
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 stalks celery chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 4 small potatoes chopped
• 10 cups vegetable stock
• 14 ounces canned diced tomatoes
• 1 small zucchini chopped
• 3/4 cup green beans fresh or frozen
• 14 ounces canned kidney beans or use canned white beans
• 1 cup fusilli pasta or any other small pasta shape

1. Tuscan: Incorporate cannellini beans instead of kidney beans and kale instead of green beans for a Tuscan touch. Use a chicken broth base and add a bit of pancetta.
2. Summer Vegetable: Add lots of summer vegetables like zucchini, yellow summer squash, and fresh tomatoes. Add fresh basil and serve with a garnish of fresh parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice.
3. Winter Vegetable: Add root vegetables like turnips, parsnips, and butternut squash. Use a hearty vegetable or beef stock and season with rosemary and thyme.
4. Meatballs: Add small, homemade meatballs made from ground beef, pork, or turkey for a meaty version.
5. Bacon: Add some chopped bacon with the onions, carrots and other veggies at the beginning of cooking for a delicious savoury flavour.
6. Vegan: Make the recipe as directed and use nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavour instead of Parmesan cheese.
7. Pesto: Stir in a few spoonfuls of pesto (homemade or store-bought) for a burst of fresh flavour. This variation works well with a mix of summer vegetables and white beans instead of kidney beans.
8. Creamy: For a creamier version, add a splash of cream or a dollop of sour cream at the end of cooking.

Adding pasta to soup makes freezing that soup a little more challenging, but with a simple trick it’s easy to freeze this Minestrone Soup recipe!

Freeze the soup without adding the pasta! We recommend making the recipe exactly as directed, but leave the pasta out. (If you include the pasta as the recipe directs, it will over-hydrate and become soggy, even in the freezer.) Freeze the soup in airtight containers and when you’re ready to serve, simply thaw it, reheat it, and add some cooked pasta right before serving.

We hope you love this Minestrone recipe as much as we do! Let us know in the comments below, what’s your favourite homemade soup recipe? We’d love to know!

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• Vegetable Soup
• Easy Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
• Homemade Mushroom Soup
• Lasagna Soup
• Mexican Tortilla Soup
• Sweet Potato Soup
• Creamy Zucchini Soup
• Beef Barley Soup with Kale