This minestrone soup recipe is a delicious version of the classic Italian vegetable soup. Serve it with crusty bread for an easy vegetarian meal!
Today, I have two goals: to bake a batch of Christmas cookies and to make a pot of minestrone soup. To me, the two go hand-in-hand. After I spend an afternoon baking (and eating!) something sweet, I want nothing more than a warming, nourishing pot of soup for dinner at night.
I love this minestrone soup recipe in particular because it’s so satisfying, but still light and fresh. Onions, carrots, and celery add depth of flavor to its herb-flecked tomato broth, and starchy beans and pasta make it nice and thick. I toss in green beans for texture, and, as a final finishing touch, I top it off with fresh parsley and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. It’s super easy and flavorful, and all you need is crusty bread to make it a meal. Cookies for dessert are optional, but highly recommended.
Minestrone Soup Recipe Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this minestrone soup recipe:
- Onion, carrot, and celery – These vegetables create the aromatic base of the soup, known as a soffritto in Italian. You’ll sauté them in olive oil before adding the other ingredients.
- Garlic – It adds additional depth of flavor to the soup. You’ll stir it in after cooking the onions, carrots, and celery so that it doesn’t burn.
- Diced tomatoes – For sweet, tangy flavor.
- Green beans – They add vibrant color and crisp-tender texture to the soup.
- White or kidney beans – Navy beans, cannellini beans, and red kidney beans all work great!
- Vegetable broth – Use store-bought, or make your own.
- Bay leaves, oregano, and thyme – My easy version of a homemade Italian seasoning! These dried herbs add so much complexity to this simple minestrone soup.
- Small pasta – Think elbows, little shells, orecchiette, or ditalini. I like to cook it right in the soup so that it releases its starches into the broth.
- Fresh parsley – For garnish! Fresh basil would be excellent here too.
- Red pepper flakes – Optional, for heat.
- And Parmesan cheese – This salty, umami garnish takes the soup over the top.
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
Variations
If you don’t have these exact ingredients on hand, don’t worry. As Alice Waters writes in The Art of Simple Food, minestrone soup is endlessly customizable. Part of the beauty of this recipe is that you can change it up to use what’s in season or what you have on hand. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Substitute chopped fennel for the celery.
- Replace the green beans with diced zucchini or yellow squash, or use a mix of all three.
- In the summer, use diced fresh Roma tomatoes instead of canned ones.
- Stir in fresh greens, like spinach or kale, near the end of the cooking time.
- No pasta? Swap in a quick-cooking grain like pearled farro or barley.
- Instead of using canned beans, cook your own! Then, use the aromatic cooking liquid in place of some or all of the vegetable broth in this soup.
Let me know what variations you try!
Minestrone Soup Serving Suggestions
This recipe is best right after it’s made, as the pasta absorbs the broth as it sits in the leftover soup. If you want to make it ahead of time, I recommend cooking the pasta separately and stirring it into the soup as you’re ready to eat. Alternatively, you can skip the pasta and add an extra cup of beans to the soup. Prepared this way, the soup will keep well for up to four days in the fridge.
When you’re ready to eat, top each bowl with a sprinkle of parsley, red pepper flakes, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. If you’re vegan, feel free to skip the cheese, or garnish your bowl with a scoop of vegan pesto instead. (Non-vegans take note: regular pesto is also a great topping for minestrone soup!).
Serve the soup with good crusty bread and call it a day, or round out the meal with a side salad. This arugula salad, this beet salad, and this pear salad would all be fantastic with this minestrone soup. Enjoy!
More Favorite Soup Recipes
If you love this minestrone soup, try one of these delicious soup recipes next:
- Butternut Squash Soup
- Tortellini Soup
- Cabbage Soup
- Many-Veggie Vegetable Soup
- Best Lentil Soup
- Instant Pot Lentil Soup
- Tomato Basil Soup
- Or any of these 33 Best Soup Recipes!
Minestrone Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1½ cups cooked white beans or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup chopped green beans
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ¾ cup small pasta, elbows, shells, orecchiette
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- Red pepper flakes
- Grated Parmesan cheese, optional, for serving
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, salt, and several grinds of black pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften.
- Add the garlic, tomatoes, beans, green beans, broth, bay leaves, oregano, and thyme. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Stir in the pasta and cook, uncovered, for 10 more minutes, until the pasta is cooked through.
- Season to taste and serve with parsley, red pepper flakes, and parmesan, if desired.
Made this soup as stated in recipe. However I didn’t have green beans, either did the store (thanks pandemic) so used some chopped up kale instead.
Great Soup!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely delicious. I deleted the pasta since I was serving corn muffins. Also added the zest of one medium lemon during the last half of cooking – which made the soup soar. Even better the next day.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Simply delicious. My family loved it.
I’m so happy to hear!
This soup is so comforting and delicious! It hits the spot and I am so looking forward to my leftovers. Thank you for the recipe!
Just made this. My husband’s favorite is minestrone and says this is the best he has ever had!
I’m so glad he loved it!
For the vegetables I used one bag of frozen mixed vegetables and I also added a chopped up green pepper and an additional 28 oz can of tomato sauce to make the soup a little thicker.
I’m a purest and believe that if you are going to rate a recipe, make it exactly as written, otherwise you will be rating a different recipe. I made this exactly as written and also added a teaspoon of parmesan to my bowl and it was excellent! Crusty bread and butter goes great with this soup!
Hi Frank, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Made exactly as written except halved the oregano and thyme and did not add any salt. It was FABULOUS. Made it on a cold winter night and it was perfect. Will put on my “loved it and will and make it again” board.
I’m so glad you loved it!
This is the best soup l have tasted to far.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
It is so cold here in NJ today I had to make soup and this one was terrific. I followed the recipe exactly except forgot the kidney beans so used chickpeas. The soup is just a healthy bowl of vegies. Delish!
I’m so glad you loved it!
Kids absolutely loved this recipe! 10 out of 10! was very delicous.
Your recipe was great! I made some bite sized meatballs out of raw breakfast sausage and seared them in the pot first. I moved them to a plate, and then sautéed the veggies. I didn’t have any beans so I used some frozen corn. I added the mini meatballs back into the soup with the stock so they would finish cooking. I also made the pasta separate from the soup and added it to the bowls as we ate it. I knew there would be leftovers and I didn’t want it to get all mushy as it sat in the fridge. Like all soups and stews, it was better the next day! Yummy!
Delicious and healthy! I also put in the juice of 2 lemons as I have a Meyer lemon tree. Really made the flavor bright!
I’m making right now, and I’m going to just use fresh lemon zest. Whether zest or juice, a touch of lemon always helps to brighten and enhance the flavor of a minestrone.
I also opted to use vegetable stock, not broth…and not the boxed stock, either. I made my own from a vegetable demi-glace for a deeper flavor.
One more note…opt to simmer in the oven, covered (if using an enameled cast iron pot). The indirect heat will allow this to develop more, whereas the direct heat on the stovetop can still burn the natural sugars even at lower temp.
Used your method and it was unbelievably delicious. Thank you for the alternative.
Thank you. Your recipe was simple and so easy to follow. I definitely will be bookmarking your page and following you on Instagram. I used fresh tomatoes bec I forgot to get canned and used zucchini instead of string beans.
I’m so glad you loved the soup!
Great dude
So very hearty! What a wonderful soup!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This was a delicious soup! I had a few extra veggies to use: leeks, fennel, zucchini and cauliflower. I just added a little more water and everything worked great! I will definitely come back to this, thank you!
I am so confused. Somehow, somewhere I did get info on how to increase the servings more than 4-6, Did something happen as I can’t find the link.
Hi Lani, some other sites have features to slide a scale and increase the recipe – we’ve found those types of programs to be buggy and inaccurate, so we don’t have that.
I also like a good minestrone, I made one just last week 🙂
One secret ingredient I always add to boost the flavor –> parmesan rind!
I keep the rinds in the freezer, only to use them in minestrone 😉 🙂
always great to have a good minestrone soup recipe at hand, thank you, always better from scratch
Full of vitamins. Delightful healthy soup.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!