Minestrone Vegetable Soup (Printable)

Hearty Italian soup with beans, pasta, and fresh vegetables for a comforting meal.

# What You’ll Need:

→ Vegetables

01 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
02 - 1 medium yellow onion, diced
03 - 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
04 - 2 celery stalks, sliced
05 - 2 cloves garlic, minced
06 - 1 medium zucchini, diced
07 - 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
08 - 1 cup green beans, chopped
09 - 1 can (14 ounces) diced tomatoes

→ Legumes & Pasta

10 - 1 can (14 ounces) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
11 - 1 cup small pasta such as ditalini or elbow macaroni

→ Broth & Seasonings

12 - 6 cups vegetable broth
13 - 2 teaspoons dried Italian herbs including oregano, basil, and thyme
14 - 1 bay leaf
15 - Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

→ Finishing Touches

16 - 2 cups baby spinach or chopped kale
17 - 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
18 - Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving, optional

# How-To Steps:

01 - Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add diced onion, carrots, and celery. Sauté for 5 minutes until softened.
02 - Stir in minced garlic, diced zucchini, diced potato, and chopped green beans. Cook for an additional 3 minutes.
03 - Add diced tomatoes, drained cannellini beans, vegetable broth, dried Italian herbs, and bay leaf. Bring mixture to a boil.
04 - Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer for 20 minutes.
05 - Stir in small pasta. Simmer uncovered for 8 to 10 minutes until pasta and vegetables reach desired tenderness.
06 - Remove bay leaf from pot. Add spinach or kale and cook for 2 minutes until fully wilted.
07 - Adjust seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper according to preference.
08 - Ladle soup into serving bowls. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and optional grated Parmesan cheese.

# Expert Hints:

01 -
  • The beauty of this soup is how it transforms whatever vegetables are languishing in your crisper drawer into something magnificent—I promise nobody will guess you were just cleaning out the fridge.
  • It actually tastes better the next day, which means your future exhausted self will thank your present self for the gift of a ready-made meal waiting in the refrigerator.
02 -
  • Adding the pasta directly to the soup pot works beautifully for immediate serving, but if youre planning leftovers, cook and store the pasta separately to prevent it from absorbing all the precious broth and becoming mushy.
  • The difference between a good minestrone and an extraordinary one often comes down to seasoning at the end—taste and adjust salt levels after the vegetables are fully cooked, when their natural sweetness has developed.
03 -
  • Save vegetable scraps—carrot peels, onion ends, celery leaves—in a freezer bag until you have enough to make your own vegetable stock, creating a zero-waste foundation for your next batch of minestrone.
  • For a richer, more complex flavor without adding meat, stir a tablespoon of white miso paste into the broth during the last five minutes of cooking—this trick converted even my most carnivorous friends.
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