We’re still deep into cozy soup season, so I’m enjoying my pasta soup style this evening in this super creamy tortellini soup. It’s got a rich and creamy tomato-based broth, hearty cheese tortellini to sink your teeth into, a medley of veggies, and everything you’re going to want on a chilly winter night. Plus, the leftovers are awesome, so come lunchtime tomorrow, you’ll be really glad you made it. ;)
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What’s in Tortellini Soup
This soup, at its core, is super basic, but the ingredients add up to big flavor and a hearty bowl that will keep you full. Here’s a quick rundown of the ingredients in this delicious tortellini soup:
- Vegetables: This soup starts like many other soups with a mirepoix (onion, celery, and carrot) plus a little garlic for good measure.
- Tomatoes: I’ve added two tomato products to this soup, tomato paste and crushed tomatoes. The tomato paste helps thicken the broth and gives a deep tomatoey flavor, while the crushed tomatoes give the soup volume and a little more texture.
- Vegetable Broth: Vegetable broth gives this soup volume and dimension to the flavor.
- Italian Seasoning: I kept the seasoning simple here by using an Italian seasoning blend instead of using several individual spices. If you don’t have Italian seasoning, you can substitute it with a mix of basil and oregano.
- Cheese Tortellini: The star of the show! I used a bag of frozen small cheese tortellini to give the soup extra belly-filling power. You can use just about any flavor of tortellini you’d like for this soup.
- Heavy Cream: A splash of heavy cream makes the broth extra lush, but you can skip it if you’d like! I love adding the cream because it makes the soup taste like a really rich tomato soup.
- Spinach: I finished the tortellini soup off with a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach to give the soup balance and a little more color. You can skip the spinach or add some frozen chopped spinach in its place if you wish.
Buying Tortellini
Tortellini is one of the most expensive ingredients in this soup, so make sure you’re shopping wisely! In most major grocery stores you’ll be able to find tortellini in three places: with dry pasta, in the freezer section (near frozen bread), and with fresh pasta in the dairy case. I find that the frozen tortellini is usually the best price, and you can even use half the amount of tortellini in this recipe if you need to reduce the cost further. If using dry tortellini, you’ll need to boil the tortellini in the soup slightly longer and you may need to add extra water.
What Else Can I Add?
Italian sausage makes a great addition to this soup if you want something a little more meaty, or you could even sauté some bacon in the pot before the vegetables for even more richness. Want to make it extra cheesy? Sprinkle some grated or shredded Parmesan on top of each bowl just before serving.
How to Store Tortellini Soup
After cooking, divide the tortellini soup into single-serving portions and refrigerate until ready to eat. For longer storage, you can transfer the containers to the freezer after they’re fully chilled. To reheat, microwave on high until the soup is heated through, or reheat in a saucepot over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
Creamy Tortellini Soup
Servings 8 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.37)
- 2 carrots ($0.29)
- 2 stalks celery ($0.22)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.26)
- 4 Tbsp tomato paste ($0.36)
- 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes ($1.69)
- 1.5 tsp Italian seasoning ($0.15)
- 4 cups vegetable broth ($0.52)
- 19 oz. cheese tortellini (frozen) ($4.79)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream ($0.82)
- 4 oz. fresh spinach ($1.20)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.04)
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
Instructions
- Dice the onion, carrot, and celery. Mince the garlic. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic to a large soup pot along with the olive oil. Sauté over medium heat until the onions soften (about 5 minutes).
- Add the tomato paste and continue to stir and cook over medium heat for about three minutes more.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and vegetable broth to the pot. Stir to combine and dissolve any tomato paste off the bottom of the pot.
- Turn the heat up to medium-high and bring the soup up to a simmer. Let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the frozen tortellini to the soup and boil for about 3 minutes, or the recommended time on the package needed to cook the tortellini.
- Turn the heat off. Stir the heavy cream into the soup. Stir the fresh spinach into the soup until wilted.
- Taste the soup and season with salt and pepper to taste (we added about ¾ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper).
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How to Make Tortellini Soup – Step By Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion, two carrots, and two stalks of celery. Mince four cloves of garlic. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic to a large soup pot along with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the onions have softened.
Add four tablespoons of tomato paste to the pot and continue to sauté with the vegetables for about three minutes more.
Add one 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes, 1.5 tsp Italian seasoning blend, and 4 cups vegetable broth to the pot. Stir to combine and dissolve any tomato paste off the bottom of the pot.
Turn the heat up to medium-high, and allow the soup to come up to a simmer. Allow the soup to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add one 19oz. package of frozen cheese tortellini to the soup and continue to boil for 3 minutes, or as long as needed according to the package directions to cook the tortellini.
Turn the heat off and stir ½ cup heavy cream into the soup (optional).
Add about four large handfuls of fresh spinach to the soup, then stir it in and allow the spinach to wilt.
Give the soup a taste and adjust the salt or other seasonings to your liking (we added ¾ tsp salt and ¼ tsp freshly cracked pepper).
I like my tortellini soup garnished with a light sprinkle of Parmesan and some freshly grated black pepper. 😋
Tasty, and couldn’t be easier! I added a dash of lemon juice to my bowl to balance the acidity a bit better.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I was concerned it might not be filling enough, so I beefed it up with about one can’s worth of white beans. It definitely worked!
What do I do for dried tortellini. ? Should I add it sooner?
I would boil it separately, then drain and add to the pot where I added the frozen tortellini.
My daughter is a “new” vegetarian…so these recipes have really been good for keeping dinner fresh new and interesting!
This is my new go-to last minute meal. My super-picky kid even says it’s his favorite soup. Thanks for making my life easier! :)
Hi, Beth! This is my first time visiting your blog and I enjoy it very much! I just made this and I loved it! I did a couple things different. I didn’t add any onions, and essentially halved the recipe (running low on groceries). But it turned out great! My 2 year old had extra helpings, so I know it was good (she even gave me a thumbs up and said “awesome”). I look forward to cooking more of your recipes.
My new fav site. Food network let me down. Chose 13 recipes to try. Trying three this week .
Hi Beth, do you think this would work with fresh spinach? Thanks!
Yep, absolutely. You can just stir it into the hot soup at the end and it will wilt into the soup.
Third BB recipe I’ve tried and unfortunately it was the first miss for me. The frozen spinach was just yuck, but that was clearly a personal opinion because my husband loved it! Fresh spinach might have not grossed me out quite so much, maybe I will try that if I ever make it again. I mostly just picked out the tortellini I’m afraid. But it was not a total bust since my husband gobbled it up!
I have trouble eating frozen spinach in general (the texture really gets me) but I’ve found that if I cut the block into smaller cubes (one 10oz block into about 20-25 one-inch cubes) the spinach is small enough once it’s thawed that I have no problems with it, and my kids inhale it too.
This is a very late comment, but I just made this for lunch and it was amazing! It was so easy and delicious.
Next time I might try a little less water, but that’s more to save the capacity of my cookpot and not because there’s something wrong with the texture, haha. :)
Thanks again for another great recipe. I can’t wait to add it to my freezer stash.
I made this tonight and it is SO GOOD!! The brand of tomatoes I got seemed a bit extra acidic so I added in a half tablespoon of sugar and it balanced it right out. Simmering it a bit longer made it thicken up nice and when I finally got to eat some, I was in heaven!! This made about 10 cup size servings for me making it extra cheap..yayyy!
Do you think this would freeze well, or might the tortellini get too mushy?
As always, I’m a huge fan! :)
It might get soft, but I’m sure it would still be delicious!
This is a simply fantastic recipe! I added more tortellini and spinach to beef it up a bit (20 oz and 16 oz respectively) and cut the water in half. Also, instead of pepper I threw in a few red pepper flakes. The soup was pretty thick, but it was super delicious.
Just add some cheesy garlic bread and you’ve got a great vegetarian meal!
I’ve had this pinned for awhile; I love spinach, tomatoes and cheese tortellini, so I’ve been wanting to make it for awhile. I made it tonight and although it was edible, I don’t think it’s going to make my list of favorites. Might be better with a cream base such as tomato soup with milk instead of tomato sauce and water. If I’d had parmesan on hand, it probably would’ve enhanced the flavors. More a personal opinion, but I didn’t like the garlic bits, so I think I would use a garlic salt or garlic powder as an alternative. It made a HUGE pot; I meant to make some for dinner and save the rest for leftovers, but after I had a bowl of it, I couldn’t think about finishing off the remainders. Will take it to work in hopes someone else will like it.
This was so good! I found this website this morning and thought this recipe sounded so good that I made it tonight ! My whole family loved it :) i will definitely be making this again and again
Excellent recipe. Just made this for my mom and even she enjoyed it. I browned a pound of sausage and added it in about 5 minutes before I served it. Very impressed with these minimal recipes and looking forward to trying more of them.
I made this soup a while ago and loved it. We are having a healthy potluck at work and I want to take this… I was wondering if you know the nutrition facts?
Unfortunately, I don’t. But check out my FAQ page for some links to websites that let you calculate nutrition data for recipe. :)