Vegetable Minestrone Soup
My vegetable minestrone soup recipe is a copy cat from an Italian restaurant called Roma Deli that my husband and I visit frequently. When we visit Roma Deli I almost always have a bowl of this soup and it is one of my favorites! I decided to recreate it because I wanted to be able to enjoy it at home. It is very close to the original soup except I added a little tomato paste for a subtle tomato flavor. Minestrone is one of those soups that is a true comfort food. It is chock full of vegetable goodness, chicken broth, a little tomato paste and some ditalini pasta. This soup is so versatile that you can add any vegetables that you have around your kitchen. An added bonus is that one serving of this soup is only around 250 calories! Buon appetito!!
Ingredients for Vegetable Minestrone Soup:
The main ingredient for the soup is the fresh veggies. You can use whatever veggies you have on hand in your home. My standard choice for this soup are onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, celery, potatoes and fresh Italian parsley.
You will also need olive oil to saute the veggies in, chicken or vegetable stock, tomato paste, dried or fresh basil, and salt and pepper to taste. I add ditalini pasta that is cooked separately because I don’t like the pasta to get soggy, but you can cook it in the soup if you desire. Other pasta like macaroni can be substituted, but I prefer ditalini because they are small and don’t take over the soup. This is a very simple soup but it is so full of flavor!
Instructions for making Vegetable Minestrone Soup:
- Prepare all of your vegetables by chopping them up. I like my vegetables to be quite chunky.
- Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven pan and saute only the onion, celery, and carrots until they are starting to become tender.
- When the veggies are tender add two minced garlic cloves and saute for a minute or two.
- Next add a carton of low sodium chicken or vegetable broth and two tablespoons of tomato paste (I like the tube tomato paste). Bring everything to a boil.
- Cook your ditalini pasta in salted, boiling water to al dente in a separate medium saucepan. I use 1/2 to 1 cup of pasta depending on how much you like in your soup. You can also leave out the pasta if you want this to be strictly a vegetable minestrone soup.
- Add the zucchini to the veggies and broth in the dutch oven and boil for about 5 minutes or until slightly tender.
- Add the potatoes and boil for five minutes or less until they are barely tender. The potatoes usually cook fairly quickly. You don’t want to end up with overcooked and mushy vegetables.
- Add chopped parsley, basil and salt and pepper to taste and simmer a couple of minutes longer and serve immediately.
- I add the ditalini pasta to individual bowls so that it doesn’t absorb the broth.
- Add some fresh grated parmesan cheese and a few dried red pepper flakes to taste!
- This soup is delicious with some crusty Italian bread or garlic bread.
Optional additions to Vegetable Minestrone Soup:
- I really like to keep this soup basic but you can experiment and add other veggies to your soup such as frozen peas, spinach or kale, yellow squash, green beans, mushrooms, etc. Most vegetables would be great in this soup so add your favorites if you want to change it up.
- You could add drained kidney or canelloni beans when you add the potatoes.
- Some optional spices that go well with the soup are fresh or dried thyme or dried oregano.
- You can use other types of pasta such as small shells, small elbow macaroni or other smaller size pasta.
I usually make a small batch of soup but if you need to serve more people or want leftovers you can double all of the ingredients. This soup stores well in the refrigerator in a covered container for about 3 days. If you are going to store or freeze it, add the pasta when ready to serve in individual bowls so it won’t absorb all of your liquid. I add the pasta separately because it tends to swell up if you cook it with the soup.
Other great soup recipes to try:
Vegetable Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 1/2 white or yellow onion, chopped
- 3 medium carrots, chopped into rounds
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 32 oz carton low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 small or medium zucchini, cut in half and chopped
- 2 potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 handful fresh Italian parsley, chopped
- 1/2 tsp dried basil (you can substitute fresh if desired)
- fine sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- 1/2 to 1 cup ditalini pasta (cook desired amount to be added to soup when ready to serve)
Instructions
- Prepare vegetables by chopping everything up. (I like them fairly chunky)
- Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven pan and saute only the onion, celery, and carrots until they are starting to become tender. When the veggies are tender add two minced garlic cloves and saute for a minute or two.
- Next add a carton of low sodium chicken or vegetable broth and two tablespoons of tomato paste (I like the tube tomato paste). Bring everything to a boil.
- While soup is heating up, start to cook ditalini pasta in salted, boiling water to al dente in a separate medium saucepan. I use 1/2 to 1 cup of pasta depending on how much you like in your soup. You can also leave out the pasta if you want this to be strictly a vegetable minestrone soup.
- Add the zucchini to the veggies and broth in the dutch oven and boil for about 5 minutes or until slightly tender.
- Add the potatoes and boil for five minutes or less until they are barely tender. The potatoes usually cook fairly quickly. You don't want to end up with overcooked and mushy vegetables.
- Add chopped parsley, basil and salt and pepper to taste and simmer a couple of minutes longer and serve immediately. I add the ditalini pasta to individual bowls so that it doesn't absorb the broth. Add some fresh grated parmesan cheese and a few dried red pepper flakes to taste!
- Calories based on using 1 cup ditalini.