A Healthy Minestrone Soup is filled with amazing fresh vegetables and bursting with everything your body craves on a cold day! Soup is one of our favorite things to have on hand and this classic vegetable, pasta, and bean soup doesn't disappoint.
We all know canned soups are salty bland ghosts that look and taste unappetizing. I'm here to tell you that if the only minestrone soup you’ve ever had came from a can, then you are massively missing out. A Minestrone Soup – made with fresh ingredients – is one of those amazing family recipes to be handed down for generations.
If you aren’t lucky enough to have that kind of a cookbook in your family, though, don’t worry; this recipe is worthy of any family cookbook!
What Goes in Minestrone Soup?
Depending on who is making your minestrone soup, there are a number of different things you could end up finding in it. Some add green beans, others corn; while you won’t find green beans in this recipe, there is corn, and other universal Minestrone soup ingredients like pasta and diced tomatoes.
This soup also has vegetable broth, summer squash, zucchini, white beans, spinach, carrots, garlic, and onions. Oregano, salt, and freshly ground black pepper are also added in to help give it a delicious, complex flavor profile.
Where Does Minestrone Soup Come From?
The earliest versions of Minestrone soup actually predate the Roman Empire, all the way back to Latin tribes hailing from Italy. These tribes were vegetarian by necessity, living mostly on staple vegetables like lentils, cabbage, carrots, and garlic. The main dish during this time was a porridge made from spelt flour cooked in salt water with whatever vegetables they had on hand added to it.
Over time this soup transformed into the Minestrone soup we know today – though tomatoes and potatoes weren't added until the 16th century, when they were brought back from the New World to make the Minestrone soup we know today.
Can This Be Made in a Slow Cooker or Instant Pot?
Yes!
This recipe is amazing in a slow cooker and instant pot.
For making it in the slow cooker, add all of the ingredients – except the pasta – and cook them for 6 hours on low, or 4 hours on high. When you are 20 minutes from done, add the pasta. This will allow the pasta time to cook and soak up some of the amazing flavor you’ve been developing over the past few hours.
Cooking minestrone soup in the instant pot is a little bit more complicated. Start off by sautéing your onion and garlic in the instant pot and add the vegetables, excluding the spinach. Then add your pasta, diced tomatoes, broth, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Pressure cook this for 2 minutes then do a quick release so you can relieve the pressure quickly and get inside. At this point you can add your beans and spinach and sauté for another 5 minutes, or until the beans and pasta are cooked through.
Can This Recipe Be Frozen?
One of my favorite things about soup is how well it keeps in the freezer – you could make a soup in the days leading up to Halloween, and not eat it until New Years!
Yes, absolutely, minestrone soup will keep in the freezer for as many as 3 to 4 months.
Simply put it in a container, and let it freeze – make sure the container isn’t completely full though because the soup will expand when it freezes (which is why I don't really use glass jars). I’m a big fan of using freezer safe Ziploc bags and filling them with serving sized helpings. This way, if I want some soup, all I have to do is take a bag out of the freezer and reheat exactly how much I want!
Using the bags also allows me to freeze the soup laying flat, so I get stackable bags of soup.
What to Eat With Minestrone Soup
Minestrone soup is one of those soups that is just made to be eaten with bread –
In fact, thanks to its already robust and hearty nature, I actually recommend that you not have anything else with it except bread – though remember that bread bowls count here (just make sure to have a plate or something under it)! Other bread options that work fantastically are a good homemade farmhouse style bread or some delicious sourdough.
You don’t have to make your own sourdough! Store bought is still AMAZING. Whatever bread you have on hand will also work, even if it’s a little bit stale. Just use it to soak up some of the fluid!
Other Soup Recipes
- Slow Cooker Chicken Quinoa Soup with Kale
- Sausage, Pepper, and Spinach Soup
- Spinach Tortellini Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Sausage, White Bean, and Spinach Soup