Healthy Minestrone Soup
Easy and delicious healthy minestrone soup! This recipe is packed with six different vegetables, shell pasta, and beans, and seasoned with Italian herbs.
If you’re looking for a delicious way to get in more plants, then let me introduce you to this healthy Minestrone Soup!
With six different vegetables plus protein and fiber-rich kidney beans, minestrone soup is one of my favorite recipes to make when I want to pack in the good stuff. That’s been my mission here at Delish Knowledge since 2009, creating nourishing recipes that help you eat more plants.
Soups are an easy way to do this, and this Minestrone Soup is just the latest in my arsenal of other healthy, plant-based soup recipes— like my Tuscan Kale Soup, Chickpea Orzo Soup and Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup.
To me, soup is winter’s answer to salads. They are an easy way to enjoy a few servings of vegetables at one meal and be budget-friendly with canned beans and dried pasta.
See below for details and tips for success, or scroll down to the full recipe below.
Why This Recipe Works
I love pasta soups and make them almost weekly this time of year. From my pasta fagioli to my chickpea noodle soup, we really enjoy the classic combination of pasta, beans, and vegetables.
This minestrone is fantastic for two reasons– one, the addition of red wine vinegar at the end. As I’ve shared in several previous soup recipes, a little acid goes a long way in making soups. It helps to enhance the saltiness of the soup and balance the richness of the tomatoes.
I use red wine vinegar here as it’s a natural complement to the other ingredients, but know that almost any other acid will work. A little lemon juice or even plain vinegar does this trick. Start with 1 teaspoon and then adjust from there; too much acid will overpower the minestrone soup. You should not be able to taste the vinegar!
Second, if you’ve ever made pasta soups, you know that you need to serve them right away, or else the pasta continues to absorb the broth, leading to overcooked pasta and too little broth! For this minestrone soup, I recommend cooking the pasta separately in salted water and then ladling the cooked soup over the pasta in bowls when ready to serve.
Plating this way helps with saving any leftovers. For maximum flavor, I like to add in a drizzle of good olive oil and a sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan cheese, but that’s optional. This minestrone soup is naturally vegan if you don’t add the parmesan cheese on top.
Minestrone Soup Ingredient Notes
As with most good soup recipes, this one is fairly interchangeable based on what you have on hand, and the vegetables’ proportions can also be adjusted.
If you add more or less vegetables, then you’ll want to make sure that you add more or less broth as a result. While this minestrone soup recipe is great this time of year when most of us are trying to eat more vegetables, it’s also great in the summer months when your garden is overflowing with zucchini and green beans.
I use fresh green beans because I like the texture over canned green beans, but you can use either.
Small shell pasta is my favorite for minestrone soup, but you can also use elbow noodles, mini penne, orzo, or ditalini.
How to Make This Minestrone Soup
Cook the Onions
Add the onions to a large soup pot and cook until tender and golden brown, about 8 minutes.
Add the Vegetables
Add the rest of the vegetables and cook until just softened.
Add the beans and broth
Add the beans, broth, water, and green beans and simmer for 30 minutes until cooked through. Stir in the red wine vinegar and season to taste with salt.
Cook the Pasta
Cook the pasta separately. I do this so if there are any leftovers, the pasta stays fresh.
Assemble
Add the pasta into a bowl and ladle the soup on top. Garnish with a drizzle of good olive oil, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, and grated parmesan cheese.
Tips for Success
This minestrone recipe is almost foolproof! You can adjust the seasonings to taste as you go, adding in more oregano, basil, or red pepper flakes as desired. If you like your minestrone with more of a kick, I recommend adding in 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoons of red pepper flakes or stirring in some Calabrian chili peppers or chili crisp into your bowl. I love spicy food, and this is what I do!
If you aren’t planning on having any leftovers, then you can add the cooked pasta right to the soup and serve it this way.
For extra umami flavor, I like to drizzle on some good extra-virgin olive oil (currently loving this brand) and a sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan cheese.
More Healthy Italian Recipes
- Italian Chopped Salad Recipe
- Farro Bean Soup
- Vegan White Bean, Kale, and Sausage Pasta
- Marry Me Chickpeas
- Aglio e Olio
If you make this minestrone soup recipe, make sure to come back to leave a rating and a comment. Your feedback helps other readers, and seeing you make my recipes makes my day.
Minestrone Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup chopped white or yellow onion
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 carrots, thinly sliced (halved if large)
- 2 medium zucchini, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 15 ounce can kidney beans, drained
- Salt
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1 1/4 cup small shell pasta
- Olive oil and grated parmesan cheese, for serving
- Chopped fresh basil, for serving
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add the onion and cook until just tender, about 6-8 minutes. Add in the garlic, carrot, zucchini, and garlic and saute until softened, for about 10 more minutes, stirring often. Add in the oregano, basil, and red pepper flakes and stir for 30 seconds until combined and fragrant.
- Add in the tomato sauce, vegetable broth, green beans, and kidney beans. Taste, adding salt as needed. This will depend on the broth you use, I tend to do about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon more salt. Simmer for 30 minutes.
- While the soup is simmering, bring a separate pot of salted water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook until just al dente according to package directions, then drain and give the pasta a quick rinse. Divide the pasta into 4-6 serving bowls.
- Stir in the red wine vinegar to the soup and season to taste. Ladle the soup over the pasta and garnish with olive oil, freshly grated parmesan cheese and chopped basil as desired.