Vegetarian Minestrone Soup
Apr 01, 2016, Updated Jul 28, 2019
One pot Vegetarian Minestrone Soup is packed with delicious flavors and makes a wonderful meal!
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One Pot Vegetarian Minestrone Soup is comforting and delicious. It’s packed with lots of flavors and vegetables!
Of late, we have been on a major Italian food kick! I have always liked Italian good, it’s actually one of the first cuisines that I tried outside my (Indian!) food of course. But the Italian that we get in India is very Indian-ized I should say, just like everything else. You have Chinese food made the Indian way and Italian is no different. While I love that version too, over the years I have come to love the real Italian food. Hey as real as we get here, I have not been to Italy yet!
Few weeks back we were in San Francisco and we ate Italian 4Â days in a row! Like at the end of it, even I was surprised. Because it usually happens that when I eat other cuisines for 2 days in a row, I badly begin to crave Indian food. I grew up eating my Indian food everyday so I can’t survive without eating it at least 3-4 times a week. It’s like we eat Thai and Italian for 2 days and then I want my paratha no matter what! So the fact that we ate Italian 4 days in a row without me dying for Indian food was quite strange, to say the least. Anyway so these days we have been visiting this local Italian restaurant a lot. I love their neapolitan pizza crust, so good and what I also love is their vegetarian minestrone soup. There are days when we go there, hubby orders a pizza while I order a big bowl of minestrone. They serve it with traditional ciabatta and it makes such a wonderful meal.
Since I have been eating so much minestrone soup these days, I thought I should make it at home. That way I can eat it to my heart’s content and so I did and it turned out wonderful! Is this the traditional recipe? I don’t know I am not Italian so I don’t claim it to be authentic. Is it delicious, big YES!
This vegetarian minestrone soup is one pot, super easy to make and packed with delicious flavors. You can use a lot of veggies here, I stuck to the traditional ones like onion, carrots, celery, spinach. Here are few things which you should do to get that perfect bowl of vegetarian minestrone soup!
use vegetable broth: yeah plain water won’t cut it. Okay I am not saying you can’t use water, of course you can but broth adds so much flavor
use elbow pasta: of course using any other pasta would also work, but elbow pasta is just so tiny and so perfect in this minestrone soup.
add some parmesan cheese to your broth while cooking the soup: this I actually learnt from the same restaurant that we go to. Once I asked them to not put parmesan on top of my minestrone and the waitress said but the broth has parmesan! I tried that at home, added just around 2 teaspoons of it to the broth and yes it made the soup very flavorful. You may add more!
add spinach or kale: personal preference, but I love these in my minestrone.
Hope you guys give my favorite minestrone soup a try! It’s super comforting and really a complete meal in itself. Let’s see how we make it.
Method
To a pan on medium heat, add olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add chopped garlic. Saute for 30 seconds.
Add chopped onions and celery and saute for 2 minutes or so.
Add diced carrots and some salt. Cook for another 2Â minutes, till veggies begin to soften a bit.
Now add the cannelini beans and mix.
Add the can of crushed tomatoes and also add the Italian seasoning.
Add vegetable broth and mix till everything is well combined.
Add elbow pasta, stir and then cover the pan let it simmer for 5-6Â minutes.
Open the pan, add chopped spinach, black pepper and grated parmesan cheese. Mix everything and cover the pan again.
Cook for additional 5-6 minutes or till the pasta is cooked. 
Ladle your vegetarian minestrone soup into serving bowls and top with some more parmesan cheese. Serve immediately!
* I like using can of fire roasted crushed tomatoes in this recipe. You can use any tomato of your choice.
* You may use kale in place of spinach in this soup.
* I used cannelini beans in this soup which is traditionally used. You may use any beans of your choice, even chickpeas would be great!
Vegetarian Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 1.5 tablespoons olive oil I used extra-light
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 onion diced, around 1/2 cup diced onion
- 2 celery stick chopped, around 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 2 carrots diced, around 1/2 cup diced carrots
- 1.5 cups roughly chopped spinach
- 2/3 cup cannelini beans
- 15 oz can crushed tomatoes I used fire roasted crushed tomatoes
- 3/4 cup elbow pasta dry
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 2 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese I use vegetarian parmesan
- 1 3/4 teaspoon italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper or to taste
- salt to taste
To serve
- grated parmesan cheese
- fresh basil
Instructions
- To a pan on medium heat, add olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add chopped garlic. Saute for 30 seconds.
- Add chopped onions and celery and saute for 2 minutes or so.
- Add diced carrots and some salt. Cook for another 2 minutes, till veggies begin to soften a bit.
- Now add the cannelini beans and mix.
- Add the can of crushed tomatoes and also add the Italian seasoning.
- Add vegetable broth and mix till everything is well combined.
- Add elbow pasta, stir and then cover the pan let it simmer for 5-6 minutes.
- Open the pan, add chopped spinach, black pepper and grated parmesan cheese. Mix everything and cover the pan again.
- Cook for additional 5-6 minutes or till the pasta is cooked.
- Ladle your vegetarian minestrone soup into serving bowls and top with some more parmesan cheese. Serve immediately!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Vegetarian Minestrone Soup
Do I need to pre-boil Cannellini beans or would they boil and get smooth to eat in the time mentioned?
Also if i use red kidney beans instead, would it need to soak them before and pre-cook a lil bit?
Thanks!
yes I have used canned beans which are already cooked. Use canned kidney beans, if using raw, cook them first and then use in the recipe
Very nice yours recipe
Loved the recipe!! Is it possible to use fresh tomatoes instead of the canned ones?
yes you may!
Can you suggest how to make vegetable broth?
I have a recipe for stock here: https://www.cookwithmanali.com/instant-pot-vegetable-stock/
Can I add some other cheese is it compulsory to add parmasean cheese
skip, its not compulsory at all!
Thank you Medha! I love it 🙂
Thanks Stacey 🙂
Me too! Thanks Marcie!
Thanks Jen!
It’s one of my fav too 🙂
There’s nothing like hot soup on a cold, rainy night! Loved this version…
I agree! Thanks Puja!