As we move from colder weather to warmer days, a good soup like Minestrone is a must. This hearty, vegetable-filled Minestrone Soup recipe is warm and soothing, but light enough to not make you feel weighed down as you’re out enjoying these beautiful days. Plus, this Easy Minestrone Soup ticks all of my Budget Bytes boxes: easy, inexpensive, flexible, and meal prep-friendly!
What is Minestrone Soup?
Minestrone is a hearty and rustic Italian soup that features vegetables, beans, and pasta and has a light broth flavored with a Parmesan rind. It’s super budget-friendly, naturally nutritious, and so easy to make. Our version is not traditional, as we’ve swapped more beans (chickpeas) for the pasta and left out the Parmesan to keep it vegetarian, but it’s still super filling and delicious!
Ingredients for Minestrone
Here’s what you’ll need to make this “souper” easy Minestrone Soup recipe:
- Onion and Garlic: Sautéed onion and garlic give the soup a deliciously savory base flavor.
- Olive Oil: Olive oil is used to sauté the vegetables and it gives the soup a little bit of body.
- Vegetables: This soup features a medley of colorful vegetables like carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, and green beans. The vegetables give the soup tons of flavor, texture, and color to keep it exciting to both the eyes and the palate!
- Beans: We use a combination of kidney beans and chickpeas for this interpretation of minestrone. We’ve used chickpeas to replace the traditional pasta, which tends to get mushy when the soup is stored and reheated.
- Vegetable Broth: The broth for minestrone is made with a base of vegetable broth which combines with the juices from the tomatoes and fresh vegetables to create a deliciously complex flavor.
- Tomato Paste: Tomato paste helps give the broth a little more richness and a punchy tomato flavor.
- Italian Seasoning: We opted for an easy one-and-done Italian seasoning blend to keep this soup fast and easy enough for a weeknight meal.
- Lemon Juice and Parsley: Adding lemon juice and parsley to the soup at the end creates a fresh top note to the flavor profile that brightens the soup up perfectly.
Where’s the Parmesan?
There are a lot of interpretations of Minestrone soup out there, but they often include a Parmesan rind to infuse more umami flavor into the broth. I didn’t have a Parmesan rind on hand so this particular recipe is a vegetarian minestrone. But by all means, if you have a Parmesan rind on hand and aren’t concerned about keeping the soup vegetarian, add it to the soup before it simmers! You won’t be disappointed.
Some people also add a little bit of meat to their Minestrone. Pancetta or bacon are great options (brown in the pot before adding the vegetables) for adding a touch more flavor.
Where’s the Pasta??
Minestrone soup traditionally has some sort of pasta or grain to make the soup extra hearty. Since pasta can get mushy when it swims around in soup for too long, I decided to avoid that issue and just sub some extra beans (chickpeas) to add that extra heartiness without having to deal with soggy pasta.
If you want to add some pasta to your minestrone, just choose any small shaped pasta like ditalini, small shells, or orzo. Add about 1 cup of the uncooked pasta and an extra 2 cups of water to the soup, then boil until the pasta is tender.
What Else Can I Add to Minestrone?
My favorite thing about Minestrone is that it is SUPER flexible. If you don’t like one or more of the vegetables in my recipe below, feel free to use one of these instead:
- Celery
- Sweet Potato
- Russet Potato
- Fennel
- Turnips
- Kale
- Spinach
- Butternut Squash
- Peas
What to Serve with Minestrone
Minestrone soup is a true meal in a bowl and covers all of the bases on its own, but if you like to have a little something on the side I would suggest some hearty bread, like our no-knead bread, or maybe our Cheddar Drop Biscuits. A grilled cheese sandwich would probably also be awesome on the side!
Easy Minestrone Soup
Servings 6 about 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 4 carrots ($0.32)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste ($0.10)
- 1 28oz. can diced tomatoes ($1.00)
- 1 15oz. can kidney beans ($0.75)
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas ($1.00)
- 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning ($0.30)
- 4 cups vegetable broth ($0.52)
- 1 zucchini (about 1/2 lb.) ($0.71)
- 1 cup frozen green beans ($0.30)
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice ($0.06)
- 1 Tbsp chopped parsley (optional) ($0.10)
Instructions
- Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and slice the carrots. Add the olive oil, onion, garlic, and carrots to a large soup pot. Sauté over medium heat until the onions become soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).
- Add the tomato paste to the pot and continue to sauté for 2-3 minutes more, or until the tomato paste begins to coat the bottom of the pot (do not let it burn).
- Rinse and drain the kidney beans and chickpeas, and then add them to the pot along with the diced tomatoes (with juices), Italian Seasoning, and vegetable broth. Give everything a good stir, place a lid on top, and allow it to come up to a simmer. Allow the soup to simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- While the soup is simmering, slice the zucchini into quarter-rounds. After the soup has simmered for 20 minutes, add the sliced zucchini and frozen green beans (no need to thaw first). Stir and simmer the soup for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until the zucchini just begin to soften.
- Finish the soup by adding lemon juice and chopped parsley. Give it a taste and add extra salt if needed (my soup did not need any extra salt, but it may depending on the type of broth used). Serve hot with crusty bread for dipping!
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Nutrition
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How to Make Minestrone Soup – Step by Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion, mince two cloves of garlic, and slice four carrots. Add the onion, garlic, and carrots to a large soup pot with 2 Tbsp olive oil and sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).
Add 2 Tbsp tomato paste to the pot and continue to sauté for 2-3 minutes more, or just until the tomato paste begins to coat the bottom of the pot.
Rinse and drain one 15oz. can of kidney beans and one 15oz. can of chickpeas. Add the beans to the pot along with one 28oz. can diced tomatoes (with juices), 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning, and 4 cups vegetable broth. Give everything a stir, place a lid on top, and allow it to come up to a simmer. Simmer the soup for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
While the soup is simmering, slice one zucchini (about ½ lb.) into quarter-rounds.
Once the soup has simmered for 20 minutes, add the sliced zucchini and 1 cup frozen green beans (no need to thaw first). Stir everything together and let it continue to simmer for 5-10 minutes more, or until the zucchini just begins to soften.
Finish the soup off with 1 Tbsp lemon juice and about a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Give the soup a taste and add salt if needed. I did not add any extra salt to my soup, but you may need some depending on the salt content of your broth.
So much vegetable goodness!!
This soup is delicious! So satisfying and easy! Thank you!
I’ve made a couple of your soups but unfortunately I haven’t had much luck with the tomato-based ones. Do you have any suggestions for what kind of canned tomato to use to avoid the weird canned-tomato-taste (I’m from Poland so specific brands will probably not be available for me)? The only things that’s helped so far was to double the cooking time but then all the other ingredients get really mushy so that’s not always an option. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Hmm, unfortunately I’ve never experienced the taste you’re talking about, so I’m not sure what to look for to avoid it. Perhaps someone else in Poland will see this and offer some tips.
Wonderfully easy and delicious! Added celery and elbow macaroni. Used only kidney beans, no chickpeas, and omitted the lemon juice. Am proud of how good this turned out. Your recipes are the best! Thank you for sharing them, Beth!
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even the kids loved it! Easy, flexible recipe to use up whatever veggies are left over, add frozen ones if necessary.. We added potatoes which were great after simmering in the tomato broth. The beans and chickpeas make it more filling that ordinary vegetable soups. Light enough for Spring. Definitely going to add this to the regular rotation!
Amazingly delicious! Thank you for sharing :)
Wow just stumbled on it and apparently it’s the same soup I make regularly (including pasta, beans and any fleshy veggies). I also usually add a can of tuna (whole or chunks) – it tastes similar to chicken and boosts the protein content a lot! I’m pescatarian so this is one of the staples 😀
Hey, looks nice, but it looks more like a ratatouille (or rattatuia per my grandma) than minestrone. Minestrone doesn’t have much tomato, if it has it at all. It’s green.
Would still eat it.
This recipe is perfection! Can’t wait to cook again and again. I’m just wondering, is there any reason why it’s described as vegetarian and not vegan?
Lol, good question! Just an oversight, I suppose! :P
Thanks for confirming it’s vegan friendly :)
Beth, Beth, Beth! Now I think you’re a magician. I just signed up to provide some dinners for an ill friend who is vegetarian. I thought, humm, she’d probably like a good minestrone. I opened up BB and voila! I’m not a great vegetarian cook, but this combo right here, of the soup and biscuits, sounds quite good. Thanks again, Beth!
Making this soup right now. Don’t have any zucchini but I do have a cup of steamed edamame beans. Also tossing in a spoonful of cold mashed potato at the end to thicken the broth a bit.
I love adding spaghetti squash to this type of soup instead of pasta. The firmness and sweetness of the squash is great!
I love minestrone soup with pasta but really really hate soggy pasta – hate it to the point of gagging (thank you 1960’s cafeteria ladies). So I simply make the soup, cook some pasta, and add the pasta to the individual bowl before eating. If I’m really hungry, there is a lot of pasta in the bowl. Cooked pasta keeps well for a couple of days in the refrigerator.
Love this cooking blog even though I know my way around the kitchen and a budget. I recommend it often to young adults cooking on their own for the first time. It helps them gain confidence in the kitchen, preparing basic, budget friendly food. It doesn’t take them long to spread their wings if they want to.
We love minestrone and this is the sort of basic formula recipe I like best. Flexible, inexpensive, easy, and tons of flavor–I added some chopped celery to the onions, carrots, and garlic at the beginning for a classic mirepoix, plus we like the added flavor. Just water, because I didn’t have veggie broth–since that’s made with many of the same veggies, we used, didn’t miss it. Tossed in a bay leaf, too. This recipe is a terrific dumping ground giving life to veggies languishing in the fridge, both fresh stuff getting weary and leftovers–I had some limp fresh green beans added early and some cooked broccoli which I chopped and added at the end. I cut costs by stocking up on canned beans when they are on sale–while we love both kidney beans and chickpeas, my combo this morning was cannellini and chickpeas/garbanzos, both acquired at $.37 a can. I was wondering what to do with the zucchini I bought at a bargain price Thursday morning, although that is such a wonderfully versatile veg, it wasn’t going to be a problem.
Thanks, Beth, for reminding me that any day is a perfect day for veggie soup!
Perfect. I am looking for a vegetarian soup ideally without pasta. This looks like it will pair well with the cheese drop biscuits. These two will keep me feed through a 24-hour readathon in April. Thanks for sharing.