This minestrone soup is everything I love about soup season. It’s light and healthy, layered with Italian flavors, and will fill you up in the best way possible.
Why You’ll Love This Minestrone Soup
When it comes to soups that eat like a “full meal” it’s hard to beat minestrone. It’s an Italian classic where leftover veggies from the fridge are all just tossed together to make a hearty soup. But fun fact, back in my corporate days, I used to eat minestrone soup for lunch at the Olive Garden that was across the street from my office. Today, I’m gluten-free so I’ve learned to adapt it from that pasta-filled restaurant version and put my own spin on it. And in my opinion, it tastes FAR better! Just think of it as a blend of my vegetable soup and lentil soup in the sense that it’s light all around, yet hearty and filling, with a fragrant Mediterranean tomato broth. But here’s a few more reasons to love it:
- No pasta is needed! You can use rice or beans to make this a satisfying, standalone vegetarian meal. And I personally love white beans and sweet potato for extra fiber and heft.
- It’s easily customizable. There’s no one right way to make this. Use any leftover veggies you have on hand to build the perfect fall soup.
- It’s nutrient-packed. Between all the veggies and white beans, it’s a meal I can always add to my weekly dinner plans… and feel good about it!
Minestrone Soup Ingredients
- Vegetables: I’m using a mix of onion, carrots, celery, diced tomatoes, green beans, sweet potato, zucchini, and spinach. But again, use what you have on hand!
- Beans: White beans are one of my favorite alternatives to pasta. You can also use other types of beans, like kidney beans or pinto beans, or even white or brown rice.
- Seasoning: A simple mix of Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper is all you need.
- Aromatics: Bay leaves, lemon juice, and parsley are my go-tos for adding brightness and depth to soup recipes.
Find the printable recipe with measurements below.
How To Make Minestrone
This vegetarian soup is all about layering in the ingredients at the right time so everything cooks perfectly. Here’s how it comes together:
Step one: Start by sautéing the onion, carrots, and celery for 4 to 5 minutes, until they’ve softened a bit. Add the garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper, and cook for another minute or so. Your kitchen will start to smell amazing!
Step two: Pour in the tomatoes, cannellini beans, green beans, sweet potato, bay leaves, and broth. Give everything a good stir, bring it to a boil, and reduce the heat. Cover the pot and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
Step three: Stir in the zucchini and baby spinach, and let them cook for another 5 to 7 minutes. Turn off the heat, finish with a splash of lemon juice and fresh parsley, and you’re ready to ladle up bowls of minestrone. Top with freshly grated parmesan if you’d like (highly recommended!).
Seasonal Vegetable Substitutions
One of my favorite things about minestrone is how flexible it is. You can easily swap in any vegetable that’s fresh and in season. Just make sure to always use 3 cups of veggies to keep the proportions the same.
- Fall: Instead of carrots, use diced pumpkin or butternut squash (my favorite!). And swap spinach for kale.
- Winter: Parsnips and turnips are great alternatives for sweet potatoes. For leafy greens, think Swiss chard, kale, and collard greens.
- Spring: This is a great time to add spring peas and asparagus. And instead of sweet potatoes, you can use baby potatoes.
- Summer: Go heavy on zucchini, bell peppers, and of course, corn!
Storage Tips
This is one of those soups that tastes even better the next day. Let it cool completely before storing it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. If you want to freeze it, portion it out into freezer-safe containers. It will stay good in the freezer for up to 3 months.
More Soup Recipes
- Butternut Squash Soup: A fall soup staple!
- Potato Leek Soup: So cozy and creamy.
- Cabbage Soup: The best low-carb soup.
- Black Bean Soup: It’s more flavorful than you think.
- Or enjoy my full list of soup recipes!
If you make this minestrone recipe, I’d love to hear how it turned out in the comment box below! Your review will help other readers in the community. And if you’re hungry for more healthy food inspiration and exclusive content, join my free newsletter here.
Description
Video
Equipment
- Le Creuset Dutch Oven My favorite pot for soup season!
- Zwilling Chef's Knife The best knife for everything.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 celery ribs, sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
- 2 (14.5-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 ½ cups chopped green beans
- 1 cup diced sweet potato, peeled and diced into ½-inch chunks
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 to 8 cups low-sodium vegetable broth, depending on how brothy you'd like it
- 1 medium zucchini, quartered and sliced
- 2 cups (lightly packed) baby spinach
- 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- optional: grated Parmesan cheese for serving
Instructions
- Saute the veggies. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery, and saute for 4 to 5 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper, then saute another 30 seconds.
- Add more veggies. Add the tomatoes, cannellini beans, green beans, sweet potato, bay leaves, and broth. Stir together and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, until the potatoes are just fork tender.
- Add the greens. Add the zucchini and baby spinach, stir, and cook about 5 to 7 minutes longer.
- Finish and serve. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice and parsley. Ladle the minestrone into bowls and garnish with freshly grated parmesan, if you'd like.
Lisa’s Tips
- Storage tip: Let it cool completely before storing it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. If you want to freeze it, portion it out into freezer-safe containers, and it’ll keep well for up to 3 months.
- Use different seasonal vegetables. You can swap sweet potato for butternut squash or spinach for kale. I have more ideas written in the post!
Nutrition
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Behind The Scenes
I just love the “fridge clean-out” nature of a minestrone soup. It’s sorta like the soup version of my egg scrambles, where I often toss in a variety of leftover veggies from the fridge (in fact, it’s what inspired my Greek scrambled eggs).
So moral of the story, be inspired by what you have in your fridge. There’s no right or wrong way to combine vegetables. Amazingly, they all work beautifully together… maybe that’s Mother Nature’s way of just nudging us to eat more of them. 😉
I made this soup and loved it so much, I invited my girlfriends over for lunch. Definitely a go to for those cold winter days. I made a loaf of rustic bread to serve with it.
That’s a perfect combo! So happy you enjoyed it with your friends, Cindie!
Made this soup today. I used low sodium broth along with no salt added diced tomatoes, the called for 1 tsp of kosher salt and found the soup to be seasoned perfectly (used all other listed seasonings). Soup is simply delicious with the listed ingredients. This recipe goes into my “keeper” recipes book. Thank you for such a healthy, great tasting soup recipe.
Glad this has become a “keeper” in your book, Yvette! It really is such a great comforting and healthy meal to turn to whenever you need it.
Very flavorful soup, and so easy to make. My husband and I absolutely love it! It’s a great way to eat all our veggies. I now make it a few times a month. Thanks for the great, healthy recipe! Keep them coming!
So glad you and your husband enjoyed this minestrone soup, Karah!
Hi Lisa:
I made it. We loved it.
The lemon touch is the best. I used fresh tomatoes as I didn’t have any cans so the color of the soup was a little bit lighter than yours, but also delicious.
Thanks for your all your work.
Cheers from Spain
Hi Maricarmen – so happy you enjoyed this minestrone! And a brighter soup with fresh tomatoes is always a good thing. :) Enjoy!
I had my FCS students make this soup in class.
It was a great way for them to work on their knife skills and they were happily surprised with the flavor. I got them to eat vegetables! :)
What a great recipe to get them working on their knife skills, Holly!
Lisa, can I just take a minute to thank you?! I wanted a soup recipe that I could throw yesterday’s leftover meatballs into and found this one on youtube! It was so nice to hear you approve of throwing anything into it! 😆 You were right! I added 3/4 of a large onion, 2 large carrots, garlic, 2 cans of kidney beans (I’d recommend a different bean or pasta), a sweet potato, frozen green beans, some leftover Costco Italian meatballs (quartered), chicken stock, and 6 Tbsp of tomato paste in place of the diced tomatoes (heated with 1-2 cups of the stock before adding to the rest) . It was absolutely delicious! I couldn’t believe how tasty this was, or how easy! I definitely want to add this to my cozy fall and winter meals. Thank you!
Aw, you’re so sweet Diane! This soup really is the best way to make use of anything you have on hand. Glad you loved this one.
I really loved everything about this soup, so healthy and flavorful! Never felt guilty about eating it. I would make this again!
Wonderful! I’m happy to hear this minestrone soup is one you’d like to make again!
Excited about making this recipe!
I just love you and appreciate you so much for all that you do and the videos that you make!!!
I have one question the Nutrition information that you posted at the end of the recipe I would assume that is for the whole pot of soup, correct??❤️
Aww, thanks so much, Donna! That’s so kind of you to say. :) The nutrition info at the end of the recipe is per serving. Enjoy!
I hate minestrone soup until now. I was looking for a dish that was full of nutrients and high in protein and saw your recipe for minestrone soup. With great hesitation I thought I would give it a go, even though my daughter is saying, Mum make foods you like. This soup is so tasty and sprinkling Parmesan cheese on top just took it to a new level. My new all time favorite. Thank you Lisa for your clear and thorough instructions. You da best!
You’re so very welcome, Penelope! Thank you for trusting my recipes and giving them a try. I’m happy to hear you’re now a minestrone soup lover!
Made this last night and it was delicious!
I used chicken bone broth instead of vegetable broth and put a Parmesan rind in while it simmered!
Everyone loved it!
Always love a parmesan rind added to soups, yum!
Hi LIsa, When we use cannelini beans normally we have dried ones, we keep them in water overnight and then boil them so they’re ready to be used, instead of buying canned ones. Do you think we should cook them before putting them in the minestrone? or if we cook them in the minestrone it would be enough?
Hi Ruth – I’d recommend cooking them before putting them in the minestrone. Enjoy!
Fantastic! So much flavor and easy to customize with my own vegetable choices. I used one can of beans and added rotisserie chicken.
Perfect! And love that you added some chicken to it. I do that often as well!
I made this soup tonight for dinner. It was so yummy. I made it with garlic bread. I didn’t have sweet potatoes on hand but I had parsnips. I also shredded asiago cheese for the top and it was very good. Thank you Lisa for another great recipe 😋. BYW your stuffed pepper soup is amazing. I had no leftovers.
Hi Amanda – so happy you loved this minestrone! And yum on the asiago cheese topping. I’ll have to add that on my next batch!
I loved this recipe, perfect for cold winter days!
Yes, it’s a great cold weather soup. Enjoy!
I made this soup last night. Soooo good. I didn’t have any onion but used a little onion powder. Very hearty with a piece of sourdough bread. I made extra so we can have meals this week too. I will definitely have this soup in my rotation for the colder months.
Glad you found another delicious soup to add to your rotation, Mary!
The soup delicious!! We had a spell of cold front come through Texas,finally! 😂 So it was really nice to have this soup along with homemade sourdough bread! Honestly this soup would be great all year!! Thank you again for another wonderful recipe.
The perfect way to kick off the fall season! Glad you loved this soup, Sue.
I ate this soup for 5 consecutive meals (literally!) and did not tire of it. I loved it so much. Different ingredients than other minestrone soup recipes I’ve tried. I didn’t even have any Parmesan cheese in the house but it was magnificent without.
So happy this minestrone soup was a winner for you, Lauren! The great thing about minestrone is you can always vary the ingredients to keep it interesting. :)
Absolutely delicious! Low sodium soup girl here!!! Highly recommend…tweak what you need to!
Yay! I’m glad you enjoyed this minestrone soup, Kara!
Perfect soup for this weather. It was super easy to make. And great for meal prep. I’ll will enjoy this for lunch for the next coming days!
Glad you loved this minestrone soup, Babette!
The best!! I added 2 cups of pinto beans. Will make this again.
Glad you loved this minestrone soup with added pinto beans, Greta!
I made your minestrone soup last night. It was delicious! You seem to know what spices to use and how much.
So glad I found your website!
Wonderful! I’m go glad this soup turned out perfectly. Hope you continue to enjoy my recipes, Sylvia!
Oh my goodness Lisa you did it again! This soup is amazing! I just made it and I love your ingredient swaps for the seasons as they are so helpful indeed! I have many of your recipes and they haven’t failed me. Thank you
I do have a question though regarding your sweet potato soup if I could use frozen sweet potatoes in a bag from the store and when I would add them to the soup. Thank you so much
Hi Valerie – I’m so happy to hear you loved this minestrone soup! And yes, making a different version for each season is so much fun (and very delicious). For the sweet potato soup, I haven’t tried it with frozen sweet potatoes, but I think that should work just fine. If you try it, make sure to leave a comment over on that recipe so we know how it turns out! :)
Love this soup! So simple but so flavourful and soul-warming. I added the whole sweet potato and went with 8 cups of broth to stretch it further. Now my Souper cubes are full and stacked in the freezer with some in the fridge for lunch tomorrow!
Amazing! Happy to hear this minestrone soup was the perfect freezer meal prep, Teresa.
So good!! So many veggies and wonderful flavor! I loved it and will for sure be making it again. Thank you!!
Thrilled you’re loving this minestrone soup, Deanna!
This soup is delicious and so simple to make. The whole family enjoyed it . We will be making this often. Thanks for sharing such a yummy and hearty soup recipe.
Happy to hear the whole family loved this minestrone soup, Dixie!
Amazing soup. Loved it. I didn’t have green beans so I substituted edamme. So good. Have loved every recipe of yours that I have made.
I’m sure the edamame tasted delicious in this minestrone soup, Myrtle!
This soup is amazing! Very flavorful and love the addition of the sweet potatoes. I will have this for dinner for the rest of the week. Thanks for the great recipe.
Thrilled you loved this minestrone soup, Lisa!
Just made this soup and it’s so tasty! Great way to extra vegetables in my daily meals and really love the sweet potato and parmesan! This will be a recipe I use again.
Yay, I’m happy to hear you loved this minestrone recipe, Keri! That sweet potato and parmesan combo is the best. :)
I have been on a special eating plan for over 470 and have released over 60 lbs. This soup totally fit the plan perfectly since it has so many veggies and great spices to enhance the flavors. Thank you, Lisa! It’s a keeper!
Glad you found a new recipe to add to your eating plan, Mame!
This is an absolutely delicious recipe!!! Will make again. The only question I have is how much is a serving? I could not find that anywhere I suggest adding it, so we can calculate the calories.
Hi Jean – so happy you loved this minestrone! The serving size is about 2 cups. Enjoy!
What is the serving size? I am trying to develop new relationship with food. I am trying to eat only one serving size at a time. I have realized my portion size of food is way off.
Hi Susie – each serving is about 2 cups. Enjoy!
Picked up the ingredients after work and just finished having this for dinner 🙌 Excellent soup with a flavorful broth. This soup was easy to make and made for the perfect meal to enjoy while a thunderstorm passed overhead. Thanks for the new autumn staple!
Amazing! I’m so glad you loved this minestrone soup. It must’ve been the perfect meal to cozy up with during your thunderstorm!
Totally needed to use up some veggies in the fridge, so this soup recipe was right on time! Enjoying a bowl right now, delicious. However, it does make a lot! I noticed you can double or even triple the recipe— is there a way to half the recipe? Also, what containers do you recommend for freezing soup? Thank you!
Hi Jasmine – Glad this was the perfect way to use up your veggies! I don’t have a button yet to halve the recipe, but you can manually do that by splitting all the ingredients in half. As for freezing, I like to use Weck jars!
Another Downshiftology winner! Your nutritious and delicious recipes are on my regular rotation. I look forward to your videos. Thank you for the inspiration!
Thanks so much, Char! I’m glad you find the videos helpful and are enjoying all of my recipes. :)
Thanks for this recipe! This is sooooo good!!
So happy you loved it, Nicole!
Always looking for new soup recipes, can’t wait to try this one. Looks amazing
Can’t wait to hear your thoughts, Betty!
Thanks for all the extraordinary recipe. Especially the minestrone and the lentil one. I love it!!!
Hi Sylvia – so happy you love both of those soups!