Vegetarian Minestrone Soup FTW! Is your crisper currently bursting at the seams? Good! Let’s make this healthy soup!
We couldn’t keep our hands off this soup!
This hearty vegetarian minestrone soup is the perfect use for all your favorite seasonal veggies.
It’ll fill you up without weighing you down so take a break from the turkey, put down the pie, and sneak this light and tasty soup onto your weekday menu!
Soup, to me, has always been a warm hug on a cold day. With the winter chill finally starting to set in, I’ll take all the hugs I can get!
The recipe below makes a giant pot that’s perfect to share and makes glorious leftovers for the following days. Bring a bowl to work for lunch or curl up with a bowl after a long day for dinner. Add a few slices of crusty baguette with butter and you have the recipe for the most divine comfort food coma.
Homemade Vegetarian Minestrone Soup
This tasty recipe yields approx. 2 quarts of soup. This will serve 8 cups or 4-5 larger bowls! The leftovers are AMAZING so enjoy some now and squirrel some away for later!
I had originally intended to freeze the leftovers this week, but Paul and I picked up an extra french baguette and scarfed this soup 1-2 times a day for 4 days until it was gone. I think it’s safe to say we loved it and cannot wait to make it again.
Vegetarian Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 1-2 TBSP olive oil
- 1 cup diced onion (1/2 a large onion)
- 1 cup diced celery (2 large stalks)
- 1 cup diced red bell pepper (1 pepper)
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 2-4 cloves garlic (smashed and minced)
- 2 cups cubed butternut squash
- 5-6 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup canned tomato sauce
- 15 oz cannellini beans, 1 can (rinsed and drained)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp parsley
- 1/2 tsp sea salt or salt to taste
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp dried basil
- 1/8 tsp dried oregano
- 1-1.5 cups ditalini pasta or equivalent
Instructions
- Heat 1-2 tablespoons of your favorite olive oil over medium heat in a large pot.
- Add the onions, carrots, celery, butternut squash and bell pepper, and cook on medium, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables soften, approx 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic towards the end to prevent burning.
- Next add your tomato sauce and 5 cups of vegetable broth (save the other cup to add later if desired]) along with your bay leaf, garlic powder, basil, and oregano.
- Save the salt for the end and season to taste.
- Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
- While your soup simmers, bring a pot of water to boil and cook your pasta if you . Some recipes swear by adding the raw noodles to the soup towards the end to add to the thickness of the soup but I always find the result to be a bit slimy and the noodles soak up a ridiculous amount of the broth. For best taste and results, I cook my noodles separately. It's an extra step [and pot] but 100% worth it to me for the difference it makes with soups like minestrone that are a perfect combination of brothy and chunky!
- Discard the bay leaf.
- Add the beans and cooked pasta and heat through.
- If the soup is too thick, add an extra cup of vegetable broth.
- Depending on the saltiness of your beans, tomato sauce, and broth, you'll want to salt the soup based on personal preference. That may mean no salt at all, just a pinch, or 1/2 tsp like I used. Let your tastebuds be your guide!
- Serve with slices of crusty baguette spread with your favorite butter.
Notes
Nutrition
If you get a chance to try this vegetarian minestrone soup, let me know!
You can leave me a comment here (LOVE checking those daily!) or tag @PEASandCRAYONS #PEASANDCRAYONS on Instagram so I can happy dance over your creations! I can’t wait to see what you whip up!
special diets and swaps
- VEGANSAURUS CHEFS – this one’s for you!
- GLUTEN-FREE – grab your favorite GF noodles and trade-out/skip the baguette
- T-REX – if all you have handy is chicken broth, go for it!
Would it be possible/have you ever made this in an instant pot? Looks so good!
Hi Annie! LOVE this soup! I have been experimenting with pasta in the Instant Pot lately but haven’t tested this one yet. It makes a lot of soup so if using a 6 QT Instant Pot it may need to be halved during recipe testing. Let me know if you get a chance to play around with it and I’ll add it to my test schedule too! xoxo
It’s just beginning to turn cool here in Texas and this soup recipe was my first soup of the season and it did not disappoint! Wonderful flavors and so easy to make.
So stoked you enjoyed the soup Joanie!
It is definitely soup season here and I love all of these beautiful flavors. I’ll be making this one!
Thanks Julie!
If you don’t want vegetable broth you can buy a vegetarian bullion called No Chicken or No Beef. I use it in soups/stews all the time. It is 100% vegetarian too.
Sweet! Thanks Keegan!
This is a new favorite! Paired with a Caesar salad it made a perfect dinner on a very cold Minnesota spring day that felt more like fall.
So super happy to hear it Laura, thank you! 🙂
The soup looks colorful and yummy, I’d love to try it. Adding it to my collection of soups 🙂
Hot soup on a cold, rainy, foggy (ok, English) day! There’s nothing better!
This is everything I’ve been craving in soup form. You always come through for me at exactly the right time. Bookmarked. I’m making this for sure. Thanks love!!
I hope you love it so much you want to MARRY it! =) Thanks love!
This looks ah.ma.zing! Aaaaaand so happy you have your hand model back! Muah!
I’m so glad he’s back too! Thanks dahhhling!
Soup really is the perfect thing for those cool winter days. I love your less traditional additions of red bell pepper and butternut squash- yum!
Thanks Liv!
Can’t wait to make this-I’m going to trade out the beans for chicken just to have little more protein and being filling, but it looks like the perfect veggie filled soup that I can get even a picky bf to eat 🙂 mmm soup
The swap will be just as yummy! Hope you both adore it!