The popular Italian soup minestrone has been widely duplicated throughout the world, albeit with radically different outcomes. With pasta, beans, and fresh vegetables, this homemade minestrone soup dish is a delicious delight that is also quite healthful. For better flavor, try to prepare it a day in advance and store it in the refrigerator. Serve with freshly chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 leek, sliced
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 zucchini, thinly sliced
- 4 ounces green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
- 1 ½ quarts vegetable stock
- 1 pound chopped tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, undrained
- ¼ cup elbow macaroni
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add leek, carrots, zucchini, green beans, and celery. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.
- Uncover and stir in stock, tomatoes, and thyme; bring to a boil. Cover again, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
- Stir in undrained cannellini beans and pasta. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes, or until pasta is tender yet firm to the bite. Season with salt and pepper before serving.
Reviews
No substitutions but did add chopped beetroot leaves. Delicious.
I used the ingredient list as a guide (not good at specific amounts for most vegetable-based recipes). Swapped in parsnips for the zucchini (not a z fan), and used lemon pepper in place of salt (diet restriction of sodium). Cooked it all up in a big stock pot… delicious!
I took the advise of other reviewers and made some modifications because I found this recipe bland without some additions. I added about 1.5 cups of tomato puree (a must!); sauteed 3 gloves of garlic in butter; added 2 bay leaves; Italian spices; extra oregano and browned a pound of ground beef. Did not have any cannellini beans so I used light kidney beans. With these additions the soup was 5 stars, without it….closer to 3.5 stars…maybe 4 stars.
It’s a good place to start for a minestrone. Good flavors, just could use some more seasoning. Will make again and play with adding different veggies as well.
Definitely will make this again. Made our own vegetable broth and used our canned tomatoes from the garden. Make sure you have fresh thyme. It really makes a difference. Delicious.
Excellent! Great flavor. And diet friendly. Will definitely make it again.
I made it according to the recipe except I used a can of diced tomatoes and included the juice. We sprinkled grated parmesan over each bowl for added effect. We loved it and will make it again!
I followed many of the tips others shared and this was awesome! It was indeed bland at first and improved vastly upon sitting.
A couple of small changes are that I sautéed some pancetta before adding and sweating the vegetables, and I added some dried basil in addition to the thyme. And I used chicken broth instead of vegetable. Other than that I followed the recipe pretty closely with two big exceptions: 1) I steamed the green beans and added them at the last minute so they retain their bright green color and 2) I cooked the pasta al dente separately and added it to the soup just before serving. I’ve found from past experience that if you cook the pasta in the soup it becomes soggy and starts to soak up the liquid within a few minutes of finishing. The other side benefit of cooking the pasta separately is that you can reserve the pasta water and add it to the soup as it simmers to keep the liquid ratio about right.
I love The Allrecipes site. I consider myself a pretty good cook! However, no amount of compliments after 38 years of cooking meals for family and friends gives me as much pleasure and joy as looking through Allrecipes site to get IDEAS for meals. This Minestrone soup recipe is awesome as is. In my opinion it needs nothing else added. Of course we all have different tastes!! I like to use fresh or frozen veggies and herbs from my garden for all my recipes if I can. That being said, all of you reviewers that have to add this or that because it tastes, “bland”, maybe try using fresh or farmers market ingredients. I skipped the sauté in a pan step and sautéed in my slow cooker instead. That was my only change. Oh! And I added kale because my garden kale was very happy this year and produced until it snowed!!
I add paprika and cayenne pepper to mine. It’s super healthy and I freeze it.
ADDED MORE PASTA
It was good. Made it great by adding the following: 3 cloves of garlic sautéed, 1 extra carrot, 1 can of tomato paste, lamb broth, 1 lb of sweet italian sausage crumbled. Had it with baguette on the side and some blue cheese.
Came out great! I’m italian so I have to have meatballs in mine. I used small Angus Meatballs from Walmart..cooked them a little first then they finish cooking in the soup. And I used 1/2 cup pasta instead of 1/4 cup but again, it’s an Italian thing, ciao!
I made this recently and my kids never commented about it. Almost a week later and they are both asking for it again.
Super easy! Great comfort food! My family loved it! I did make it vegetarian for us. So good!!
And I’ll
My go to soup recipe! I make this all the time in a big pot. Definitely better the next day!
Yes, I will make this again. It was so good and healthy. I took it for a gathering and people asked me how to make it.
Yes, I will make this again. It was so good and healthy. I took it for a gathering and people asked me how to make it.
Will definitely make this again, our family really enjoyed it. They even asked for the recipe.