Our Favorite Minestrone Soup Recipe
This is, hands-down, our favorite minestrone soup recipe. It’s packed with veggies, beans, and pasta, all swimming in the coziest tomato-Parmesan broth. We can’t get enough of it.
I love this soup so much. It’s perfect on day one, but somehow it gets even better as the days go by. The trick is to add a Parmigiano Reggiano rind to the broth as it simmers. It melts a bit, seasons the broth, and adds a light cheesy flavor.
Thanks to the beans, tomatoes, loads of veggies, and a handful of pasta, this soup is hearty enough to be a meal all on its own. If you want something even heartier, check out our minestrone soup with sausage or try one of our other veggie soups like this easy vegetable soup.
Key Ingredients
- Vegetables: The heart of any minestrone is a lot of veggies. You can play around with what you have on hand or what’s in season, but in our most made version, we use onion, carrots, celery, green beans, zucchini, and spinach.
- Canned Tomatoes: I’m all about fire-roasted canned tomatoes for this soup. They add a little extra flavor compared to regular tomatoes.
- White Beans: Use whatever white beans you love best. Canned or cooked both work. We usually go for cannellini, navy, or Great Northern beans. That said, kidney beans are popular in minestrone soup, so if you have a can of them, feel free to use them.
- Pasta: I love a handful of dried pasta added to this soup. Go for a smaller shape like ditalini or orzo, or use shells, which trap some of the vegetables inside.
- Stock: I used chicken broth in the photos, but vegetable broth is just as good. If you want to make your own, check out our chicken broth, chicken stock, and vegetable broth recipes.
- Garlic, Tomato Paste, Rosemary, and Parmesan: These are what make the broth so good. Use fresh garlic if you can. Tomato paste makes the broth richer, and a tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary makes it aromatic. If you have a Parmesan rind, drop it right into the pot and let it work its magic as the soup simmers. If you don’t have a rind, just stir in some grated Parmesan at the end.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Our Favorite Minestrone Soup
Tip 1: Sweat the vegetables. To remove the raw flavors of onions, carrots, and celery, briefly sauté them in olive oil. After a few minutes, that raw flavor will disappear, and they will smell sweet. We keep the other vegetables to the side for adding later since they do not need as long to become tender.
Tip 2: Build flavor with garlic, tomato paste, and rosemary. Just before pouring in your canned tomatoes, add the garlic, tomato paste, and rosemary. A minute or so of stirring them around the pot toasts the garlic and turns the tomato paste from a bright red to orange, which deepens its flavor.
Tip 3: Make the broth. Now, you can pile in the green beans, zucchini, canned tomatoes, beans, and broth. We drain and rinse our beans before adding them.
Tip 4: Add a Parmigiano Reggiano rind. This is my secret for the best minestrone soup. It works wonders. As the soup simmers, the cheese melts a bit and seasons the broth. Depending on how hard the rind you use is, it may not dissolve completely.
Tip 5: Add the pasta towards the end. So it doesn’t get too mushy, add your pasta when the soup has about 10 minutes left. The veggies only take about 20 minutes, so I usually simmer them for 10 minutes, then add my dried pasta and stir.
Tip 6: Turn off the heat, then stir in the spinach. I love finishing this soup with a generous amount of roughly chopped fresh spinach. It doesn’t take long to cook, so turn off the heat and stir in the spinach. Leave it for a minute or two, and it will be nicely wilted into the soup.
Serving Suggestions
I am perfectly happy to sit with a bowl of this soup and call it a day, but if you are looking for more, I’ve got a few suggestions for you. First off, a slice of homemade focaccia or sourdough with salted butter would be lovely. Then, for something light, try a salad on the side. Some of our favorites include panzanella salad, Caprese salad, arugula couscous salad, and lemon-herb zucchini salad.
More Vegetable Soups
Our Favorite Minestrone Soup
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We’re always up for a bowl of veggie soup, and this minestrone soup recipe has so many things we adore. The broth is light but still has that cozy Parmesan flavor, thanks to a Parmesan rind that simmers right in the pot. Then, there are loads of vegetables and just the right amount of beans and pasta to make it feel like a real meal.
Some minestrone recipes start with pancetta, but we usually skip it. If you want to add it, just cook it in a little olive oil until it’s crisp, then scoop it out before you start the veggies. You can sprinkle the crispy bits on top when you serve, or save them for another meal. The soup will pick up a little extra flavor from the rendered pancetta fat.
6 Servings
You Will Need
¼ cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced, about 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary, from 2 to 3 sprigs
2 tablespoons tomato paste
5 ounces fresh green beans, trimmed and chopped, 1 ½ cups (140g)
1 medium zucchini, chopped, 1 ½ cups
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, fire-roasted if available
2 (15-ounce) cans beans, like navy beans, cannellini beans, or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
8 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
Fine sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 to 2 ounce piece Parmesan Reggiano cheese rind
5 ounces dried pasta, like shells, ditalini, or elbows (140g)
4 ounces fresh spinach leaves, roughly chopped (113g)
Directions
1Cook the veggies: Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven, then add the onion, carrot, and celery, and cook until they begin to soften and smell sweet, about 5 minutes.
2Build the soup: Stir in the garlic, rosemary, and tomato paste and cook, stirring them around the pot, for about one minute. Then, add the green beans, zucchini, tomatoes with all the juices, and the drained and rinsed beans to the vegetables.
3Simmer: Pour in the broth and bring to a simmer. Taste and season the broth with salt and pepper (we add around 1 teaspoon, but it will depend on your broth). Push the cheese rind into the soup so it is fully submerged in the broth. Simmer, partially covered for 10 minutes.
4To finish: Stir in the pasta and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes. Then, turn off the heat and stir in the spinach. Leave for 2 minutes, or until the spinach wilts. Remove any remaining cheese rind, then taste the soup and season with more salt and pepper as needed. Serve with grated Parmigiano Reggiano over the top.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
- Storing: Keep leftover soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Parmesan rind: Note that the Parmesan rind won’t fully melt. It softens, melts a little bit, and mostly “steeps” like a tea bag. It adds a light flavor to the broth, but you will likely need to remove it before serving. If you do not have rind, grate some Parmesan cheese and stir it into the broth before serving (¼ to ⅓ cup would be lovely).
- Dried rosemary: Use 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons dried rosemary as a substitute for fresh.
- The nutrition facts provided are estimates.
Nutrition Per Serving
Serving Size
1/6 of the recipe
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Calories
391
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Total Fat
14g
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Saturated Fat
2.7g
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Cholesterol
2.4mg
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Sodium
784.3mg
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Carbohydrate
51.5g
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Total Fiber
9.4g
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Total Sugars
8g
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Protein
19.3g
