Seriously Good Vegetable Soup
This vegetable soup recipe is seriously so good! It's easy to make, and full of healthy vegetables and fresh flavor. There's nothing "blah" about it!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 10, 2024
You know how most vegetable soups are pretty tired and “blah”? Not this one! This hearty homemade vegetable soup is full of fresh, wholesome flavors.
I’m excited to share this vegetable soup recipe with you. It’s honestly the best I’ve ever had, and I hope you’ll agree. You just might have all the ingredients you’ll need to make this easy soup on hand already.
I can think of so many reasons to make this soup. Warm up with a big bowl of veggie soup on a cold day. Make it for someone who’s under the weather. My husband has a cold and it’s snowing outside as I type, so this soup is just what we need right now.
Prepare a batch and you’ll have a healthy side dish ready to go for the rest of the week. This soup is a great way to lighten up heavier meals, especially as we get into the holidays. Did I mention that it’s vegetarian, vegan and gluten free for all to enjoy?
Vegetable Options for Vegetable Soup
This homemade vegetable soup is versatile by design, so you can enjoy it from fall through winter. We’ll use onion, carrots and celery as a base.
We’ll also add two cups of seasonal vegetables to make this soup more hearty and interesting. Choose from veggies you have on hand, or grab your favorites at the store. Any of these will work:
- Sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- Butternut squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- Green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch long segments
- Bell pepper, chopped
- Cauliflower, cut into very small bite-sized pieces
- Zucchini or yellow squash, chopped
- Fresh greens: Kale, collard greens, chard, or spinach
How to Make the Best Vegetable Soup
We’ll use several simple techniques to build flavor as we cook this soup. Here’s how:
1) Start with the veggies.
We’ll sauté chopped onion, celery, carrots and seasonal vegetables in olive oil, with some salt. This softens them up and enhances their flavors. Adding salt during different stages of the cooking process builds more flavor than simply adding it all at the end.
2) Add fresh minced garlic, curry powder, and dried thyme.
Sautéing these ingredients for about 1 minute wakes up their flavors, but isn’t long enough to risk burning the garlic (burnt garlic tastes awful).
Curry powder is the secret to making this soup so delicious. We aren’t adding much. You probably won’t be able to pinpoint the flavor, but it adds some subtle intrigue and warmth to this soup. I’ve also used curry powder in my lentil soup and chickpea noodle soup as well, and it always works like a charm.
3) Add canned diced tomatoes with their juices.
We’ll cook them all together for a couple of minutes to reduce any tinny flavors. I used fire-roasted diced tomatoes for these photos, but regular diced tomatoes were just as good. I always recommend using Muir Glen brand of tomatoes because they taste the best and come in BPA-free cans.
4) Almost done—add some vegetable broth, water, and more flavorings.
Vegetable broth keeps this soup vegetarian/vegan. We’ll also add bay leaves, red pepper flakes, and a little more salt. If you’re sensitive to spice, you can reduce or omit the red pepper flakes. If you love spice like me, you might even want to double the amount at the end (add to taste). Regardless, we’ll let the soup gently simmer for 25 minutes so the flavors can meld together.
5) Add chopped fresh greens and finally, some fresh lemon juice.
Lastly, we’ll add chopped greens for health bonus points, and simmer for 5 minutes to soften them up. Before serving, we’ll brighten up the soup with a big squeeze of lemon juice (one of my other go-to soup tricks) and add another splash of olive oil for rich flavor. Taste the soup before and after these additions, and you’ll notice a big difference! Finally, season to taste with salt and pepper, as necessary.
Watch How to Make Vegetable Soup
Please let me know how this soup turns out in the comments. I love hearing from you, and your feedback encourages other readers to try the recipe.
Craving more hearty, healthy, meatless soups this season? Me, too. Here are a few more great options:
- Classic Minestrone Soup
- Best Lentil Soup
- Chickpea Noodle Soup
- Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Pasta and Beans Soup)
- Quinoa Vegetable Soup with Kale
- Sweet Potato, Kale and Chickpea Soup
Don’t miss the hearty soups in my cookbook, Love Real Food. They’re some of my favorites!
Seriously Good Vegetable Soup
This vegetable soup recipe is seriously so good! It’s easy to make, and full of veggies and fresh flavor. If you’re feeing under the weather or just wanting to lighten up your meals, this soup is the answer. Recipe yields 6 bowls of soup.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 cups chopped seasonal vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, green beans, butternut squash, potatoes, bell pepper, zucchini or yellow squash
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, divided, to taste
- 6 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon curry powder
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
- 4 cups (32 ounces) vegetable broth
- 2 cups water
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, reduce or omit if sensitive to spice
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 cups chopped kale or collard greens or chard (thick ribs removed), or spinach
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Warm 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the chopped onion, carrot, celery, seasonal vegetables and ½ teaspoon of the salt. Cook, stirring often, until the onion has softened and is turning translucent, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add the garlic, curry powder and thyme. Cook until fragrant while stirring frequently, about 1 minute. Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juices and cook for a few more minutes, stirring often.
- Pour in the broth and water. Add ½ teaspoon more salt, 2 bay leaves and the red pepper flakes. Season generously with freshly ground black pepper. Raise the heat and bring the mixture to a boil, then partially cover the pot and reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
- Cook for 25 minutes, then remove the lid and add the chopped greens. Continue simmering for 5 minutes or more, until the greens have softened to your liking.
- Remove the pot from heat and remove the bay leaves. Stir in the lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Taste and season with more salt, pepper and/or red pepper flakes. (You might need up to ½ teaspoon more salt, depending on your vegetable broth and your personal preferences.) Divide into bowls and enjoy.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my quinoa vegetable soup and lentil soup.
Storage suggestions: This soup keeps well in the refrigerator for about 4 days. It freezes and defrosts well if you want to freeze extra portions for later!
Recommended equipment: I’m convinced that everything I cook in my Dutch oven (affiliate link) comes out extra delicious.
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.
Thank you for the soup recipes. I made vegetable today. The substitution ideas make it easy to use the remnants in the freezer and veggie drawers.
Could you add some sort of beans to this for extra protein? Thank you. Going to try this today.
Sure! Chickpeas could be nice here.
How can I make this recipe in a crock pot?
Thank you
I haven’t tried it, so I can’t say for sure. Sorry!
Made this for a friend who was sick with the flu. It is outstanding. My sister in law and I both loved it. The sick friend swears it helped him get better faster…he felt better the next day. He also requested that the leftover frozen for later. Thanks for an excellent recipe!
That’s great to hear, Laurie!
The perfect soup. I add in half a cup of lentils and an additional cup of water to make it extra hearty.
Great to hear, Natalie!
WOW! This soup is seriously delicious. It’s delicious as it is but I went ahead and changed it to my liking. Two onions instead of one. The only seasonal vegetable used was a large potato and about a cup and a half of fresh green beens. Also used fresh tomatoes and about a cup of V8 vegetable juice.
Thanks for posting this recipe. It’s now my go to vegetable soup.
Your veg soup is wonderful – and so customizable. (I won’t bother to tell you what I did in the end, but it was yummy.)
The basics are the heart.
I follow a bunch of your stuff – thanks!
Just wondering if the one-half tsp of Red Pepper flakes is a typo? The soup is so spicy I can barely eat it without a bite of bread. As a comparison, your somewhat similar Lentil Minestrone soup (which I love) has only a “pinch” of red pepper flakes. If you’re thinking I should have started lower with the pepper flakes, you’re right. But, I have made (and loved!) so many of your recipes as written, it didn’t occur to me to doubt the amount of spice on this vegetable soup.
You can omit if you prefer.
Cookie and Kate, thank you both very much for this recipe. Your recipe gave me a delicious lunch to feel cozy inside on a cold autumn day. Having the opportunity to work with fresh vegetables is also always such a calming experience.
You’re welcome, Sabine! Thank you for your review.
I started making this delicious soup every week during the pandemic when I was home working remotely. Now I’m retired and I still make it almost every week. It is endlessly adaptable as well, which I love. Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe!
You’re welcome, Helen!
Loved this soup! It is really the best ever. Very hearty for veg soup. First time I made it just like you instructed and it was wonderful. Second time I added more of the spices, some frozen lima beans, a parmesan cheese rind, and extra greens at the end. We took some to our “adopted” (mid – late 80’s) French mom who LOVED it. She eats so little and believe me, it was a huge complement coming from her.
Hooray! That’s great to hear, Julia.
I’ve made this soup so many times and everyone raves about it! Just put it together with ingredients that were available to me which makes it so easy. It’s so flexible but incredibly delicious. I basically clean out my crisper drawer and follow the rest of the directions LOVE IT!
Was fantastic soup. Lemon juice was the key for me. Thank you Terry
You’re welcome!
I love your soup recipe! The curry powder distinguishes it from plain vegetable soup. The recipe is easy to follow and easy to modify with whatever vegetable I have on hand.
Thanks!!
You’re welcome, Betty!
This is by far the best vegetable soup I have ever made – thank you for the recipe!! I followed it to a tee, but added some kidney beans and black beans that I had cooked earlier (not canned). I put them in near the end just to heat them up.
I love this soup and have made it on many occasions as it’s so adaptable. This time around I added a tin of beans and it’s worked very well.
Wow! I made this last night, and the broth was amazing. I followed it to the letter, no subs. I had to buy some curry powder, i almost skipped the store run. Glad i didn’t, this is my new veggie soup base. Much thanks!
Great to hear, Robert! Thank you for your review.
This is the best vegetable soup I’ve ever had. Thank you!!
My husband tasted it and said, “Wow… this is some SERIOUSLY good vegetable soup!” LOL. It is. It’s amazing! I doubled the batch and used many different vegetables, as well as the greens. I didn’t add extra water. We loved the greens. The Muir Glen tomatoes were key also. Didn’t even need crackers. Thanks for a wonderful recipe. Love that it’s customizable.
I love to hear that! Thank you for sharing for your review, Eileen.
Absolutely fabulous!!
best recipe i will try it.
Délicieux!
I have been regularly making this soup since this past Summer. I use cumin instead of curry (husband doesn’t like curry) and scale it up for a double recipe. I freeze it in quarts and add cheese tortellini (or cooked Italian sausage) if a slightly heartier version is needed. I can’t tell you how much we love this soup, and I’m cooking for discerning eaters — husband, mom and cousin.
Thank you so much. Good soup is very comforting. This recipe makes everyone feel loved.
You’re welcome, Brooke! I’m happy to hear it was a hit.
Even the kids loved this soup and came back for more, enjoyed leftovers for breakfast (teenager flexibility?), and tasted even more for a pre dinner snack. Going to be saving and making this recipe again for sure.
Delish! This is my only veggie soup recipe I use! Wonderful – the lemon is amazing. The red pepper flakes are also very flavorful.
This is seriously the BEST vegetable soup ever. The hubs and I both loved it–and he doesn’t like curry. I loved how the curry gives it a warm flavor without tasting like actual curry. My husband appreciated the kick from the red pepper flakes. I used what I had for “seasonal” vegetables–a bit of zucchini, some sweet potato, and radishes (surprisingly good cooked!). Thank you SO much for this recipe; it’s going in the favorites file and I will be sharing it with others as well. Your recipes are awesome!
I think it’s the best too! Thank you for your review, Susan.
I have made this soup often, my favorite and have always used Dutch oven.
Can this be made in a crockpot?
Thank you I love all your recipes
Linda
I recommend this best as written.
Wonderful soup. I make this in large batches and freeze. My son added penne pasta to a batch I made for him. Adding a protein to this soup would work well too.
Hi! I have used many of your recipes and they’re all amazing!
I’ve made this soup so many times, I feel it’s time to compliment.
Thank you for this beautiful gift of warm, hearty soup. I definitely mix up the veggies, seasonally as you suggest.
It truly is a huge win in my house with so many different palates.
Love this recipe!
Thank you
I’ve made this several times and is always good. I had a pinch more curry powder but otherwise follow the recipe. I’m making it now.
That’s great to hear, Theresa! Thank you for your review.
OMG this soup is delicious. Don’t leave out the curry powder.
Wow wow
I was looking in my fridge today and saw Brussel sprouts, sweet potato, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes and some celery asking to be thrown out. I’m afraid I never do that, especially while I was reading your ingredients. I washed it all and put it in a large pot with water. I added all your herbs and spices etc. After it was cooking for about 45 minutes I added some vegetable broth and lemon juice.
Put it all in the blender it’s absolutely delicious.
I know I didn’t follow your recipe properly but I’m a single man.
Thanks so much.
Thank you for sharing how you made it, Stephen!
This soup was delicious!! I added 1 diced potato and 1 diced zucchini as my vegetables and also added 1 can of cannellini beans when I added the tomatoes for some protein. I served it with French bread. It was perfect for a cold, wintry day. I will definitely make it again.
This soup is delicious – vegetable flavors stand on their own but as noted the red curry powder takes it to another level. It’s very satisfying.
Thank you for your review, Theresa!
I loved this soup!! We added 1 diced potato and 1 diced zucchini and a can of cannelini beans. The 2nd time I made it, I added some shredded rotisserie chicken for my husband. Both were delicious!
Thank you for your review, Diane!
Love this recipe! Could I ask if you recommend peeling sweet potato/potato for the soup, or if it’s ok to leave the skins on? Thanks!
I prefer to peel them. I’m happy you enjoy this recipe, Kate!
I misread the directions on this wonderful soup and bought ALL the vegetables mentioned. I did wonder why you would put squash, potatoes and sweet potatoes in the same soup. When I read the directions again I saw my error, but thought why not? I used 1cup of each and adjusted the broth and spices. IT WAS GREAT! Now I always
Great soup. This one’s a keeper.
Loved this soup! My husband did too. He thought the spice from the red peppers were just right. I found it a bit spicy but delicious nonetheless. I find your site enchanting and have become a fan.
Seriously! Your vegetable soup is beyond delicious and so healthy! I make it for friends as a gesture of friendship instead of flowers
We have had an unusual amount of rain and this soup is a big hit.
Your lentil soup is also 5 stars-!! Thank you!
Wow! This is my favorite soup right now. The curry and thyme pair beautifully! Thanks so much for sharing.
I love this vegetable soup. It’s flavorful and nourishing. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Great to hear, Wedny!
OMG!! Seriously, the best vegetable soup ever!! My husband loved it! I left out the potatoes and used butternut squash instead. This soup is so filling and very flavorful. Yum!!
I made this soup today with whatever vegetables I had in my fridge that needed to be used! I also added a small amount of red quinoa and white cannellini beans to the mix – it was so delicious on a cold night! Wonderful recipe!
Great to hear, Karen!
Well,,this is a delicious soup. I love it. But I was still hungry after having two bowls of it. I think it needs some sort of protein. Maybe some beans?
Sure, beans could be a nice addition.
Just finished making this soup to freeze for ramadaan, I however cut my carrots too thick so now it looks like little cut up sausages, is it possible to blend the soup?
I prefer this as recommended. I don’t know if blending this soup would be great blended, sorry!