Vegetable Soup

Make this easy vegetable soup recipe with whatever veggies you have on hand! Nourishing and light, it's perfect for warming up on cold nights.

Vegetable Soup

This vegetable soup recipe is cozy, healing, and warming. It’s just the thing for cold nights, days when you’re craving a healthy reset, or any time you’re feeling a bit under the weather.

I first started making it years ago, when I was bouncing back from a cold and had a ton of random veggies in the fridge. Using the ingredients I had in my pantry—vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, dried herbs, and vinegar—I transformed this jumble of vegetables into an amazing soup! Since then, I’ve made it again and again, with a different mix of veggies every time. No matter what produce I have on hand, this easy vegetable soup always comes out delicious.

Vegetable Soup Recipe ingredients

Vegetable Soup Recipe Variations

I call for a lot of vegetables in this soup, but use whatever you have on hand and/or skip what you don’t have. Here are a few easy ways to change it up:

  • Use all carrot or all sweet potato instead of both, or add butternut squash instead.
  • Toss in a few sliced cremini mushrooms when you add the carrot.
  • Swap bell pepper for the cherry tomatoes, zucchini, or green beans.
  • Use another leafy green, like spinach or chard, in place of the kale.
  • Garnish bowls with chopped fresh parsley or basil, a scoop of pesto, or sprinkle of Parmesan cheese!

Many-Veggie Vegetable Soup

The veggies aren’t the only flexible part of this recipe! Feel free to vary the other ingredients as well. Here are a few ideas:

  • Add a tablespoon of dried Italian seasoning in place of the oregano.
  • Skip the vinegar, and add a big squeeze of lemon juice in its place.
  • Omit the chickpeas, or replace them with white beans or cooked French green lentils.

Let me know what variations you try!

Serving Suggestions

Enjoy the soup on its own, or pair it with a salad and crusty bread for a heartier meal. It also goes nicely with a grilled cheese sandwich.

How to Store Vegetable Soup

I like to make a big pot of this vegetable soup and eat it the next day and the day after that. It keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days—the flavor improves as it sits in the fridge!

For longer storage, freeze the soup for up to 3 months.

Vegetable Soup recipe

More Easy Soup Recipes

If you love this easy veggie soup, try one of these vegetarian soup recipes next:

vegetable soup

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vegetable soup

Vegetable Soup

rate this recipe:
4.97 from 260 votes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Serves 6
This easy vegetable soup recipe is perfect for using up whatever veggies you have on hand! It's a healthy, vegan meal that's great for cool fall and winter days.

Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, salt, and several grinds of pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes. Add the carrot and sweet potato, stir and cook 2 more minutes.
  • Add the canned tomatoes, garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Stir in the broth and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, for 20 minutes.
  • Stir in the cherry tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, chickpeas, and cover and cook 10 to 15 more minutes, until the green beans are tender.
  • Stir in the vinegar and the kale and cook for 5 minutes, until the kale is wilted. Season to taste and serve.

 

232 comments

4.97 from 260 votes (167 ratings without comment)

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  1. Haha! I love how you not-so-sneakily snuck Friends into that last sentence. That show is just irresistible, and perfect for sick days on the couch. Hope you’re feeling better!

  2. I’ve been craving soup all day, this recipe couldn’t have come at a better time! I love vegetable soup, fully loaded with lots of veggies! Great recipe!

  3. Looks very tasty and healthy, great article going to try this tonight!

  4. Anna
    10.21.2014

    the friends jokes you threw in there — that he couldn’t BE anymore into it and the song reference — totally made me smile. 🙂

    • jeanine
      11.11.2014

      ha, thanks 🙂

  5. This is such a great looking soup. It’s blowing a gale here in Amsterdam and I really need to cuddle up with a bowl of this awesome soup (and my partner!). Thank you for this recipe and all the great advice and recipes on your blog. Glad to read you are back up on your feet as well.

  6. Based on my grandmother’s advice, I steadfastly hold that soup is the best cure for illness (she also says that sticking garlic cloves up your nose is the best cure for a stuffed nose. I will refrain from commenting). This looks like it would do the trick!

  7. Sorry to hear you weren’t feeling well! Soup always helps though, and this one sounds fantastic. The more veggies, the better in my opinion!

  8. This looks so comforting. Sometimes a simply flavored bowl of soup is just what we need when we aren’t feeling our best. Love the white wine and balsamic additions here.

  9. cheyenne from wanderfulways.blogspot.nl
    10.21.2014

    this looks delicious! i’ve been sick myself, and i’ve been wanting to try out a new soup recipe. guess i found it!
    xo, cheyenne

  10. Hehehe, the Friends song reference made me giggle. Friends is on my list of shows to watch because I have only seen one episode all the way through. In the minds of some of my friends, that is basically sacrilegious.

  11. Lindsay
    10.20.2014

    Looks delicious! I’m looking forward to trying this – just wondering, what is the volume of the can of tomatoes you used?

  12. Lindsay
    10.20.2014

    Looks delicious! I’m looking forward to trying this – just wondering, what is the volume of the can of tomatoes you used?

  13. Kathryn from allfoodthoughts.com
    10.20.2014

    this looks great – I usually start my soup routines this time of year, healthy or sick.

  14. Judi Creed
    10.20.2014

    Perfect timing. I started eating healthy todayQ! Gonna make this for sure! Thanks!

  15. Glad you are feeling better! This looks wonderful – I have been in a serious soup mood the past few weeks.

  16. Magali from uniklook.com
    10.20.2014

    This soup looks so yummy and perfect comfort food!

  17. Melissa from sterlingandoats.blogspot.com
    10.20.2014

    This sounds like a great way for me to clear out my fridge! Beautiful & simple.

  18. Vanessa from thewh0lestory.com
    10.20.2014

    This looks so beautiful and hearty. And the name? It couldn’t be more perfect!

A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.