An easy to make, Minestrone soup recipe that tastes 1000 times better than the Olive Garden’s version! Myminestrone soup is loaded with good for you veggies, like spinach and zucchini. It’s also protein packed with red kidney beans and great northern beans. You’ll be full for hours from this healthy, nutritious soup!
How about I throw a bunch of ingredients (say, veggies, beans, and pasta) into a crockpot and call it dinner?This slower cooker minestrone soup is probably going to be the easiest thing you’re ever going to cook. And the best part? You didn’t even need to turn on the stove!
I wonder if it’s even legalfor me to call this a minestrone soup recipe? It’s ingredients that get tossed into the slow cooker and a few hours later, they come out in the form of a soup.Don’t you just love lunches and dinners like that? This gal right here is a big fan of those kinda meals.
Minestrone Soup Recipe Video:
So guys, I have news. I♥ vegetables. And you already knew that. And now you know it even more.
My hope for you with this soup → that you make this on a really chilly and busy October night. It’s absolutely perfect for those days/nights when you have only3,018,857 things to get done, and the fact that the crockpot is adulting for you and taking on the dinner responsibilities for the evening means you have the 30 minutes you would’ve spent making dinner to do what. ever. you. like.
Real excitement right there. Ideally, that would happen in a big, comfy chair with a good book and a warm blanket. These oh so rare, picture-perfect moments are brought to you by my slow cooker minestrone soup recipe.
Shall I dare say my minestrone soup recipe is better than the Olive Garden’s version? Yes, I think I will. Don’t get me wrong; I first fell in love with Minestrone soup at the Olive Garden. It actually set the expectationof what a minestrone should be for me. The canned stuff was absolutely no good at all. And after researching theinterweb until there weren’t any more recipes left to research, I decided to develop my own recipe.
So what makes my recipe unique and so much better? Well, I’ve got a secret ingredient. Any guesses? Okay, I’ll give you a hint. It’s in the picture above. And it’s a red blob. No, not the diced tomatoes, the other red blob.
*Shhh* I’m only sharing this with you because we’re friends. Ready for it?
Homemade Sun-dried tomato pesto!
That super concentrated flavor of tomato pesto is exactly what minestrone soup needs. Plus, the basil, parmesan, and pine nuts in the pesto add such a great, full-bodied flavor to the soup.
Also, since we’re sharing secret ingredients and all, toss in a few parmesan rinds into the minestrone soup. For herbs, I used dried oregano, fresh rosemary (because I had fresh on hand, dried is fine too), and a few bay leaves.
TIP:I should mention that this does make quite a batch of soup. So if you’re planning on making this for weekly lunches, I suggest cooking and keeping the pasta separately. Then you can add some to each serving before reheating.
This slower cooker minestrone soup is exactly what you need to warm up on a chilly evening. I served it with a few slices of baguette, toasted and rubbed down with a garlic clove.
We dipped, we dunked, and sipped, slurped soup (say that 3x fast) like it was our job. Garlic bread pairs beautifully with minestrone soup! It was a good evening. 🙂
Yield: 6-8 servings
Homemade Minestrone Soup (Slow Cooker)
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time4 hours25 minutes
Total Time4 hours35 minutes
An easy to make, a minestrone soup recipe that tastes 1000 times better than the Olive Garden's version! My minestrone soup is loaded with good for you veggies, like spinach and zucchini. It's also protein packed with red kidney beans and great northern beans. You'll be full for hours from this healthy, nutritious soup!
Ingredients
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup sun-dried tomato pesto (homemade or store-bought)
1 parmesan rind
4 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
1 cup carrots, diced
1 1/4 cup celery, diced
1 1/2 cup white onion, diced
4 - 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 sprig rosemary (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 can (15 oz) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups zucchini, diced
1 1/2 cups tubular (ditalini) pasta
1 cup frozen green beans, thawed
2 1/2 cups baby spinach, chopped
Finely shredded Parmesan cheese, for serving (or Romano)
Instructions
Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato pesto, parmesan rind, vegetable stock, water, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, oregano, rosemary, and bay leaves to a slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook on low heat 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.
Add in red kidney beans, great northern beans, zucchini, and pasta and cook on high heat for an additional 20- 25 minutes until pasta is tender. Stir in the spinach and green beans and cook for an additional 5 minutes until heated through. Serve warm topped with parmesan cheese and garlic toasts.
Have you made this recipe?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below. You can also share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #LITTLESPICEJAR, I'd love to see what you made!
*Please note: the nutritional factscalculated are an estimate based on the ingredientsi’ve used.If you’d like a more accurate count, please calculate them using the ingredients/brands you’ve used to prepare the recipe.The nutritional info for this minestrone soup is calculated based on 8 servings.*
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If your minestrone is too thin, add a few tablespoons of tomato paste while it's cooking. Start with 1 to 2 tablespoons, stir well, and see how it turns out. For a thicker soup, add more tomato paste until you reach the desired consistency.
If you are adding meat to a soup, sear or brown it in a sauté pan before you add it to the soup. This adds a deeper savory flavor to the whole soup. This trick is especially useful for things like chicken and sausage, which can sometimes get bland and rubbery while floating in a brothy soup.
"Ground paprika, turmeric, nutmeg, ground ginger, and other powdered spices add a touch of color and spiciness to broths," she says. As a general rule, use fresh herbs at or near the end of cooking and dried herbs and spices early on. This helps you get the flavors you're looking for in the right balance.
Flavor the base: We add Italian seasoning and tomato paste to the aromatics and warm them up to bring the seasonings back to life. You could use fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary, or even add a Parmesan rind for more flavor.
Tomato sauce is slightly thinner than tomato puree, but either one will work. Because these products are less concentrated than tomato paste, you'll need at least twice as much to get the same amount of tomato flavor when using them as a tomato paste substitute.
Minestrone really is all about improvisation. But where to start? Here is a hearty base minestrone soup recipe, with plenty of white beans, zucchini, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, celery, and onions.
The answer is that traditionally, yes, there's a difference, even if you can't spot it right away. While Pasta e fa*gioli tends to be a thick and hearty bowl of beans and pasta, the thing it lacks is chunks of veggies. That's where Minestrone comes in…to fill the veggie void left by its country cousin.
In modern Italian, there are three words corresponding to the English word soup: zuppa, which is used in the sense of tomato soup, or fish soup; minestra, which is used in the sense of a more substantial soup such as a vegetable soup, and also for "dry" soups, namely pasta dishes; and minestrone, which means a very ...
Cayenne – For a deeper spice and heat. Cayenne can be used along with or in place of black or white pepper. Smoked Paprika – A great spice for adding an earthy, smoky flavor without a lot of heat to your soups and stews. Cinnamon – Yes, cinnamon.
Made with lots of vegetables, greens and various beans, this dish can provide you with super nutrients that slow aging and help you stay fit. Minestrone has always been a symbol of traditional Italian cuisine and the Mediterranean diet. Made with vegetables, greens and beans, it is a super-healthy mixture.
This classic Italian soup is loaded with carrots, potatoes, celery, tomatoes, kidney beans, green beans and zucchini with shell-shaped pasta and spices.
If a soup is tasting bland in the bowl, consider adding acid rather than salt. A squeeze of lemon or lime, or a dash of yogurt or sour cream can add brightness to the bowl.
The Parmesan rind, the lemon juice, fresh herbs and dried herbs. You could add red pepper chili flakes, cayenne, Herbs de Provence or curry powder for more flavors. The caramelized onions add a lot of depth to the soup but you could also add in tomato paste or even miso or soy sauce.
Adding a parmesan cheese rind to the simmering soup infuses it with salty, umami flavor. This is SUCH an easy way to add tons of flavor to soup. Look for parmesan cheese rinds at the cheese counter in your grocery store. If you want to keep the soup vegan, leave this out.
Never put onion in the corner: You can't make a broth without an appearance from at least one, but more often at least two of the holy trifecta: onion (or leeks or scallions), ginger, and garlic. Be generous here, as these will enrich the broth with fragrance and are the secret, I think, are the most soothing of soups!
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