Easy Minestrone Soup

The mother of all soups, this easy minestrone soup will leave you feeling good, full and like you've inhaled a week's worth of veggies! 

Why this soup rocks!

I call this soup 'soup-a-geddon'. Why? Because it is the biggest pot of soup you may ever make. No jokes. This minestrone soup is freaking huge! If you ever need to get more veggies into your diet, then this is the soup for you!

I love making huge soups in winter which we can freeze. When it's miserable outside, there is nothing better than pulling out some pre-made soup to cheer you up!

This minestrone, no joke feeds about 4-6 people and contains 7 different vegetables in it. It's super family friendly, and a recipe that's been made in my own family for many years.

Recipe Ingredients

The flavours itself for this soup are really simple, with flavour coming mostly from the vegetables, stock and parmesan at the end.

I don't add any pasta to my minestrone soup, making it perfect for gluten intolerant people!

Mirepoix - we talked about mirepoix the other day (don't forget to check out my lamb shank soup recipe!). A mirepoix is a mix of onion, carrot and celery.

Potatoes - I use the small, white potatoes. These need to be diced into small cubes.

Zucchini - you'll need two zucchinis, diced into small pieces.

Green Beans - a good handful of green beans, diced into small pieces

Tin Tomatoes - you'll need two 14.5oz/400g or a large 28oz/800g tin of diced tomatoes. I try to use good quality tomatoes where possible, I believe they make a real difference.

Liquids - 3 beef stock cups, and 1 liter/4 cups of water. Beef stock adds a really, rich in-depth flavour to the stock. To make it vegetarian/vegan use vegetarian stock cubes.

Butter and Olive Oil - because nothing says delicious more than frying your veggies in butter and olive oil!

Parmesan - this is for serving, again to make it vegan this can be substituted with nutritional yeast or vegan cheese.

Step By Step Instructions

The beauty of this recipe, is that it is one of those cook and 'forget' recipes. And by forget I mean, you can keep it bubbling on the stove top for a few hours until thick!

Step 1 - heat our evoo and butter in a large (like I mean really large) Dutch Oven or deep stock pot. Add the mirepoix and fry off until just soft.

Step 2 - Add zucchini and green beans and cook for a few minutes.

Step 3 - Add potatoes and stir for a few minutes.

Step 4 - add tomatoes, water and stock cubes. Stir well and season. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 - 1 ½ hours until soup is really thick!

Step 5 - to serve, dish the soup into bowls and top with parmesan cheese. This is amazing served with fresh, crusty bread and butter.

Additional Tips & FAQs

• Have everything ready and chopped before you start cooking - the preparation takes a good 10 - 15 minutes depending on knife skills, and you don't want to be chopping while everything is cooking.
• Dice your vegetables fairly small, for example the carrot and zucchini should be about 2-3cm thick. This will reduce cooking time and make your soup a little less chunky.
• To make this soup vegan, ditch the butter and parmesan, and add vegetable stock instead. To make it vegetarian, swap the beef stock for vegetable stock!
• Serve with fresh bread and butter, or toast. And most definitely add the parmesan and a pinch more salt and pepper at the end!

How Should I reheat this soup?

Store your soup in an air tight container for the next day. You might find the soup gets thick overnight, because you may have used up more liquid when serving it the night before.

If you find the soup is thick, add a little extra water (like a half cup) to your pot before reheating. This makes the soup go a little further and thins it out a bit.

I find it easier to reheat this soup in a pot, rather than microwave because usually I've got heaps left over and it can sometimes cause a mess in the microwave.

How To Freeze Minestrone

This soup freezes really well. One cooled, place in freezer proof containers. This will freeze up to 2-3 months.

When ready to eat, whip out, defrost in the microwave, then finish warming up on the stove top. You can also take it out the night before to defrost in the fridge, then simply heat in microwave the next day!

This is truly an easy minestrone soup recipe. It's a family favourite, vegan/vegetarian friendly, gluten free friendly and super healthy! Nothing beats a massive bowl of veggie soup, and this minestrone soup is a winner every time!

Georgie x x 

Easy Minestrone Soup

The Home Cooks Kitchen

The mother of all vegetable soups! This easy minestrone soup a healthy, diet-friendly, family friend soup recipe.

5 from 13 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course Soup

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4 people

Calories 322 kcal

Equipment

• 1 Large (5.5qrt/5L) dutch oven or stock pot
• Good quality kitchen knife
• Chopping Board
• Serving bowls and cutlery

Ingredients

 

• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 40 g butter 1.5oz
• 2 brown onions finely diced
• 3 carrots finely diced
• 3 celery sticks finely diced
• 2 zucchinis diced
• 120 g green beans 4.5oz, chopped into 2cm/1inch pieces
• 250 g white potatoes approx 9 ounces, peel and dice potatoes
• 800 g tin tomatoes 28oz, or two 400g/14.5oz cans
• 3 beef stock cubes
• 1 litre water approx 4 cups
• parmesan cheese to serve

Instructions

 

• Heat olive oil and butter in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium to high heat (note 1)
• Add the onions, carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes, or until onion is soft.
• Next, add the green beans and zucchini and cook further 2 minutes.
• Finally, add the potatoes and give a good stir.
• Crumble stock cubes over the vegetables, then add the water and tins of tomatoes.
• Stir well, season with salt and pepper.
• Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, or until vegetables are cooked and soup is thick. (note 2)
• Serve with grated parmesan, extra salt and pepper and toast or fresh bread and butter.

Notes

Make sure you do all the prep prior to starting cooking. You want your vegetables to be chopped fairly small to reduce cooking time. Vegetables, stock, water and tomatoes should all be ready to go prior to heating olive oil and melting butter.

Note 1 - I mean large, I used a 5.5qt (approx 5L) Dutch oven and my liquid was right to the brim.

Note 2 - cooking time can vary, I went for about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, and upped the temperature a bit at the end to thicken it up. So long as veggies are cooked you're all good! This is a really thick soup, if you find you've gone too far, add a little more water. 

Keyword minestrone soup, soup recipe, vegetable soup

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