Classic Minestrone Soup
Warm up with this vegetarian minestrone soup! This classic minestrone soup recipe is healthy, easy to make, and tastes incredible. It's vegan, too, if you don't top it with cheese.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
Finally! It’s about time this blog offered a traditional minestrone soup recipe. Minestrone is a hearty Italian vegetable soup made with tomato-y broth and pasta or rice. I’ve been working hard on this recipe and I’m so excited to share it with you.
Minestrone was traditionally made to use up leftover vegetables, so feel free to use any seasonal vegetables and greens you have on hand. I used potatoes and spinach for the soup you see here, and it was absolutely delicious.
I listed some alternatives in the recipe, including yellow squash, zucchini, butternut squash, green beans or peas. That means that you can make seasonal minestrone on cool days from fall through spring!
I used canned beans here instead of cooking my own, which cuts the cooking time down to a reasonable weeknight level. The remaining ingredients are basic pantry items, including canned tomatoes, pasta, basic spices and onions.
Why is this the best minestrone soup?
- This hearty minestrone is easy to make and totally worth the effort.
- The recipe calls for seasonal vegetables and affordable pantry ingredients.
- The soup packs great for lunch, and tastes even better the next day.
- It freezes and defrosts well, too.
- This homemade minestrone is infinitely better than the Olive Garden or store-bought varieties!
I adapted this recipe from the lentil minestrone in my cookbook, which was based on my lentil soup. For this classic minestrone, I omitted the lentils, added white beans, upped the tomato paste, and reserved the final tablespoon of olive oil to mix in at the end.
Please let me know how you like this soup in the comments! I always love reading your feedback and I’m eager to hear which veggies you use in your soup.
If you’re looking for more soup recipes, definitely check out the two mentioned above, and I have even more soups here.
Watch how to make Minestrone Soup
Classic Minestrone Soup
Warm up with this vegetarian minestrone soup! This classic minestrone soup recipe is healthy, easy to make, and tastes incredible. It’s vegan, too, if you don’t top it with cheese. Recipe yields 6 bowls or 8 cups of soup.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 medium ribs celery, chopped
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 2 cups chopped seasonal vegetables (potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, butternut squash, green beans or peas all work)
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, with their liquid (or 2 small 15-ounce cans)
- 4 cups (32 ounces) vegetable broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 bay leaves
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup whole grain orecchiette, elbow or small shell pasta
- 1 can (15 ounces) Great Northern beans or cannellini beans, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked beans
- 2 cups baby spinach, chopped kale or chopped collard greens
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for garnishing (optional)
Instructions
- Warm 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the chopped onion, carrot, celery, tomato paste and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables have softened and the onions are turning translucent, about 7 to 10 minutes.
- Add the seasonal vegetables, garlic, oregano and thyme. Cook until fragrant while stirring frequently, about 2 minutes.
- Pour in the diced tomatoes and their juices, broth and water. Add the salt, bay leaves and red pepper flakes. Season generously with freshly ground black pepper.
- Raise heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil, then partially cover the pot with the lid, leaving about a 1” gap for steam to escape. Reduce heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer.
- Cook for 15 minutes, then remove the lid and add the pasta, beans and greens. Continue simmering, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until the the pasta is cooked al dente and the greens are tender.
- Remove the pot from the heat, then remove the bay leaves. Stir in the lemon juice and remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Taste and season with more salt (I usually add about ¼ teaspoon more) and pepper until the flavors really sing. Garnish bowls of soup with grated Parmesan, if you’d like.
Notes
Make it dairy free/vegan: Don’t garnish with Parmesan, or use homemade vegan Parmesan.
Make it gluten free: Substitute your favorite sturdy gluten-free noodle. I used DeLallo’s Whole-Grain Rice Shells and they worked great.
Parmesan note: Most Parmesans are not technically vegetarian (they contain animal rennet), but Whole Foods 365 and BelGioioso brands offer vegetarian Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Fantastic soup Doll face, I used Gluten free mini pasta. taste Delicious.
Hopefully this will help on my weight loss journey.
Thank you for your review, Sherralyn!
Oh no! Mine isn’t a soup at all. It’s more of just a pasta :/.
PS You seem wonderful. I’m sure I did something wrong, but now I’m wondering how to save it. I’ve reviewed instructions and ingredients, and I think I followed everything correctly but maybe should have pulled it off a little earlier?
Hi Justine! I’m sorry it didn’t turn out well for you. What type of pasta did you use and how much? As it cools, the pasta can soak up some of the liquid. You can always add a little more liquid if you like more it more soupy.
Thank U for your recipe. Made a nourishing meal. Omitted the thyme and beans though.
You’re welcome, Sabrina!
Oh My GOD, this looks healthy. I would love to eat it every day. Thanks for the recipe
You’re welcome, Sarah!
As a very amateur cook this seemed intimidating at first but ended up tasting delicious, and really filling. Perfect in cold winter weather.
Thanks for sharing!
It’s very good thank you but I had to guess the amount(Iuse grams and my,Icouldn’t find the switch from cup to gram).
Hi Matthews! I just provide US measurements for now. I’m happy you were able to make this work.
Discovered this recipe and it is now a weekly meal in our house, though we add meat. It is such a good way to use the last of a variety of veggies and it’s a hearty yet nutritious soup that you feel great after eating. Highly recommend.
I’m happy you liked it!
I made the soup but it won’t let me pin the recipe. I’ll rate it when I can save the recipe.
OK. After the fifth try, it pinned. The end product is delicious. Followed the recipe except for the spinach because I used it for last night’s dinner and didn’t feel like running to the store. Will definitely make it again and use the spinach/kale but it’s good even without it. It’s 90 degrees outside but I had veggies to use up and I never get tired of a good bowl of soup! My first minestrone attempt so thanks for a great recipe!
I’m sorry you are having issues! Do you have a Pinterest plug-in? You can always head over to Pinterest, head to Cookie and Kate recipes. You should be able to save it from there.
I rarely ever leave comments anywhere, but I felt compelled to leave one for this recipe. WOW! This soup is PHENOMENAL. Truly the best soup I have EVER made. I made it for my husband and I. It has been a heaven-send. I followed the directions to a T and it came out perfectly. The spices are sensational. This is some soup with some serious healing power. We HIGHLY recommend this recipe. I’m adding it to my recipe arsenal, for sure. Thanks, Kate!!! 10/10!!!
I’m so glad to hear you loved it, Jessica! I appreciate your review.
I love minestrone soup and this one is a winner! It was perfect for a could winter’s day in Australia. For the veg component I added a small swede, parsnip and turnip to the carrots, celery etc. DElicious! Thanks!
Thank you for sharing, Ev! I appreciate your review.
Holy cow this soup is awesome. I didn’t use Parmesan cheese, it doesn’t need it, there is so much flavor. I don’t know if it is the tomato paste or lemon juice that make it better than the rest but this will be my Go To recipe! I cannot wait to try it with some crusty bread.
Crusty bread is a must! Thanks for your review, Amy.
great recipe thank you!!!
You’re welcome, Tabatha!
This soup is AMAZING…. Thank you for the recipe. I will definitely make this again & again. (I substituted a couple of YL Vitality EO for some of the ingredients, like oregano)
You’re welcome! I’m glad you loved it, Michelle!
Thanks Kate! Delicious! I added two garden tomatoes that were getting too soft and half a lime since I didn’t have a lemon. Tasted great!
You’re welcome, Autumn!
Decided to try your recipe after making the lentil soup (which is now my favorite lentil soup recipe!). This was SUPER tasty! I added fresh parsley at the end like one of the other comments recommended. Also, I used orzo, but I wish I had used a larger pasta like the ones you recommended. So good! Thank you for sharing your recipes! Can’t wait to try another one! :)
I love that! I bet parsley is really nice here, too!
Made this soup today for the first time and it was awesome! Great recipe! Thank you…
You’re welcome, Debra!
Oh, man. This soup is delicious. When I made it, I added a Parmesan rind I had in the fridge for a little extra flavor. :) So good.
I’m glad yo hear it! Thank you for your comment, Lydia.
.My mother used to make this. And thanks for The heads up on varying the vegetables. She was a frugal lifestyle woman from the WWII days and never grew out Of it. I appreciated that all my life. She passed on great skills.
Thank you for sharing!
Fantastic, thank you for a delicious recipe on a cold day in Cape Town, SA.
You’re welcome! Thanks for your review, Werner.
Enjoyed it to the full a few minutes ago, Kathryne – it’s going straight into my Goto file……brilliant recipe!!
Love to hear that, Pine! Thank you for your review.
Was delicious! I used navy beans instead since that is what I had, and I added some kidney beans as well. Thanks!
You’re welcome, Jana!
I made this recipe tonight to share with my son. We loved it! We used kale and I love the added heat from the pepper flakes. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome!
Thanks for sharing classic minestone soup recipe. Looks so delicious and perfect for parties!
You’re welcome!
I felt this had too tomato paste and tomatoes – it was more like a spaghetti sauce than a soup. Even with the broth and water. Half the amount of diced tomatoes and it is perfect.
Sorry you didn’t love it, Claudia.
Gracias por compartir tus recetas hice la sopa de minestrone y quedo espectacular mis esposo decia guardame para mañana, nos encanto!
You’re welcome! Thank you for your review, Yovanina!
made the soup last week – outstanding. I cooked for 22 people and really appreciated your scale feature.
Thank you for your feedback, Sharon! That’s a lot of soup. I’m glad it worked so well.
First time making minestrone soup. I doubled this recipe and boy am I glad I did! The recipe was easy to follow. I used elbow pasta, cannellini beans, small red beans, green squash, green beans, spinach, potatoes, corn, and peas. Absolutely delicious and chock full of nutrients. My friends loved it. Works great as a freezer meal. The only thing I’d change is to add more broth because the pasta expands overnight, so it was more like a stew than a soup. I’ll definitely use this recipe again. Thanks so much, Kate.
I’m glad you loved it, Cynthia! Thanks so much for your review. Thanks for sharing the freezer insight!
My Family won’t eat what they call “chunky soup” : no matter how small I dice the veggies : they will refuse to eat it.
I made this recipe exactly as it was : with one exception : once it was ready : I put it in the blender and puréed it. Because I added pototoes as one of my vegetables combined with the small pasta it puréed lovely and thick. Very Smooth.
I served it topped with Shaved Parmesan and crusty bread.
It’s now a new family FAVOURITE. And I have been asked to make it again.
I didn’t tell them it was “Minestrone” I served it up as an “ITALIAN SOUP”
THANKYOU : IT WAS ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS
I’m happy you were able to make this work for your family!
Absolute best minestrone recipe, hands down! Served it for dinner one night, then paired it with your Grilled Cheese recipe for lunch the next day to two teens boys who said it was the “best lunch ever”. Thank you!!
So yummy! I’m not much of a recipe follower, so I love that this is easy to customize. I make it all the time to use up my starting to go bad produce. Romaine lettuce works just fine in it by the way! I also usually use black beans since I buy them already, and add a bunch of cayenne to make it kind of spicy
This was the best minestrone soup that I’ve tasted & super easy to make. I added a bit more veggies (that time of year from the garden) and also used a can of mixed beans as I wanted a bit of a variety. The result was delicious! (oh yeah, I added a bit of Tabasco to mine at the end as I usually do with most soups, but my husband had it as is and loved it) Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I’ve made a zillion batches of minestrone and this is hands down the GOAT! PS- paired w/ your grilled cheese is pretty epic.
So thankful to have found this recipe! My boyfriend and I are vegetarian, and this is absolutely a new favorite. However, when making it, my boyfriend accidentally added DOUBLE the amount of noodles. After laughing with him (mostly at him), we assumed it would still be great. It is still DELICIOUS, but the noodles soaked up almost all of the broth leaving us with minestrone-flavored vegetable pasta. My thought is to even out what we have with more vegetable stock, diced tomatoes, etc., and freeze our leftover soup. However, the internet advises against freezing soup with noodles. Thoughts?
I made a few changes just because I didn’t have the ingredient called
for. I used tomato sauce instead of paste, lime juice instead of lemon, I eliminated the pasta and added a can of kidney beans, chicken broth instead of vegetable broth since I wasn’t concerned about it being vegetarian. I used two zucchini and half pound green beans and spinach along with the vegetables specified and Parmesan.
It was fabulous! I also served it with French bread but I if I had time I would’ve made croutons
Thank you for sharing, Marie!
This was a perfect way to use up some garden produce. I used yellow zucchini, potatoes, kale, garlic and green beans from the garden. We added extra red pepper flakes, but followed the recipe otherwise. Excellent soup!
I made this from my Love Real Food cookbook. I didn’t have some of the ingredients (kale, white beans), so I added some I had on hand(fresh corn, bell pepper, black beans, flat leaf parsley). PERFECT minestrone! Will make this recipe again and again. I love that it makes enough to share! Double yum!
We loved it , good thing because I doubled this recipe — mistake, I had to split it between two pots! It makes way more than 8 cups, maybe 16. I’m going to freeze some. Next time I think I’ll skip the tomato paste or use a tbsp rather than 1/4 cup. No need for parmesan imo, and I used a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce because I prefer it for heat.
I love soups but this might just be my new favorite :) It made such a large pot that I froze half to enjoy after delivery of my baby, I know it will be so warm and comforting .
This is my new favourite soup recipe!! Thank you!
Amazing!! Just perfect
Thank you, Astha!
Made this on a rainy Seattle day and it was delicious. My teen boys gobbled it down with crusty French bread. I had to add some water to the veggies with the tomato paste as the tomato paste was burning on medium heat. Next time I probably would saute the onions, celery and carrots in just the olive oil and then add the tomato paste with the seasonal vegetables.
Would you add mushrooms a shiitake or white button?
I’m going to
Thank you for recipe
I’ll let you know how it cones out
I like how you wrote it with ingredients in order
Thank you
You can add what you like. Be sure to saute them first!
Such a thorough, well- ingediented/ seasoned soup/ stew. Thanks for this as I used it as a jump off base for what I had from this summer’s garden.
My family loves this soup. It’s a little intimidating to see a recipe that tells you to use whatever is in season, but I’ve made it twice and great results both times. Thanks for sharing
I’m glad you liked it with different variety of vegetables!
Whenever I can, I use fresh tomatoes – it makes a world of difference. In the late summer, they are so cheap! I throw them in the blender, seeds, skins included, and freeze them in quart sized bags to use all year for both minestrone and tomato sauce.
That sounds like a great idea, Diane!
Can u give me the idea to change the recipe to special dietary requirements
Hello, the dietary substitutions notes are below the recipe. I hope this helps!
Minestrone is my favourite soup to order at restaurants but I’ve always been disappointed trying to make it at home. After attempting 5 different recipes over the years, this one finally is my favourite! There was so much flavour and texture from all the vegetables. I used ditalini pasta because I couldn’t find any of the other ones mentioned and ditalini is a traditional soup pasta anyways. I topped it with homemade vegan parmesan. It was so delicious on a cold (!!??!) summer night!
I’m happy this one meets your standards, Hayley! Thanks so much for your review.
I’m looking forward to trying this. Could this be made in a slow cooker/crockpot? Thanks!
I haven’t tried it, but I believe other readers have with luck. I would recommend to still saute your vegetables.
Thanks! I followed the recipe as is for my first time. It was delicious and really not that difficult. I may try the slow cooker sometime but I don’t think it’ll be necessary.
Great to hear, Natalie!
I made this soup for lunches this week and it is the best minestrone I’ve ever had!! SO delicious!!
Very tasty !