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!
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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!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
- Chef’s Knife
- White Cutting Boards
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!!
I added celery and used beef broth instead of vegetable broth. It came out great. I will definitely make again.
So healthy and delicious! I left out the onion and garlic due to food sensitivity and didn’t miss it at all. I also added 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes because I like my soup spicy, just personal preference :) I love how light but filling this recipe is, it’s perfect for hot OR cold weather.
Another win from Budget Bytes! My 13 month old daughter has started refusing foods. It’s been a struggle getting her veggies in. This soup was a huge hit!!
This is so good and very easy! A very versatile recipe depending on what you have in the fridge a the time. I added some orzo toward the end any my squash was grilled (leftovers from weekend grilling) so I added that at the very end to just warm it up. So good!!!
Holy cow, so tasty and simple. Delicious on a cold day!
Just wanted to say that I’ve made this particular soup SO many times and I think it’s one of your best by far. A great way to get more vegetables into my diet, as well as super budget friendly, easy to prepare and delicious.
I’m a vegetarian college student and Budget Bytes has been a god-send. This recipe is no exception. It fed me for over a week, I’m thinking next time I’ll freeze some. Delicious, easy, cheap, and nutritious.
A very forgiving recipe. We were out of plain diced tomatoes, so increased tomato paste at beginning and then subbed in 10 oz can petite diced tomatoes w/green chiles + 15 oz can tomato sauce. Toward the end threw in leftover orzo and some quick cooking farro. Delicious!
Hi Beth! I’m a diehard fan and cook almost exclusively with your recipes. I think the only times I don’t is when I make tacos (but then I use your recipe for Cilantro Lime Rice) and basic stuff like eggs and toast :)
If I were to add a cup of macaroni and two extra cups of vegetable broth, when would I do that? And how would the instructions change after that point?
Thank you so much. I’m on your site pretty much every day.
Hi! I would definitely add the macaroni at the end, so it doesn’t overcook. So let’s see, near the end when you add the zucchini and frozen beans. Add those, then let it come back up to a boil and at that point add the macaroni and boil until tender (about 7 minutes). That should do it!
Simple, healthy, and so very delicious.
This recipe is an absolute must! It has so much flavor from all the vegetables, I didn’t have to add salt. It’s great to eat after a workout, I like to add garlic bread as a side when I have my cheat day. Honestly one of my favorite recipes so far. (I added peas to mine as an additional, might try the other veggies when I make it again. 😁)
5/5!
So delicious I add a little twist to it I added some chicken bullion and some creole seasoning so good
I love this soup! So easy and satisfying! The only change I make to the recipe is frozen peas instead of frozen green beans.
I feel like it needs something. There’s too much Italian seasoning flavor. I think it needs some other seasoning.
Maybe (not having made it myself, just researching for this evening’s dinner!) a pinch of sugar to cut the acidity from tomatoes, some fennel seeds and some fresh cracked black pepper or a pinch of chilli flakes would work well (Italian purists, don’t @ me!). A small chunk of parmesan might be good too to up the umami flavour, if you have it available (I think I have some lurking in the back of my fridge). I’m a pretty liberal cook and tend to make it up as I go along, so this all with a grain of salt (ha ha).
Such an easy, delicious and cheap soup! We make this so often now and is great for freezing in mason jars for lunches! Thank you!