Easy Minestrone Soup (Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Vegan)
This post contains affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Easy Minestrone Soup is the perfect cozy, healthy dinner! Vegetarian and easily made gluten free. Delicious and done in under 30 minutes!Make it in your crockpot, instant pot or on the stove – this hearty soup is one you’ll absolutely love! This post is sponsored by our friends at Thrive Market.
We are affiliates of Thrive Market and receive a commission if you choose to purchase a membership thorough our links.
Minestrone soup is a classic recipe we absolutely love. Our best minestrone soup recipe is veggie loaded, vegetarian, and easily made gluten free.
It’s easy to make in your crockpot or instant pot but it only takes 30 minutes on the stove!
This recipe is also made with basic affordable ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry/fridge!
Liz’s Time Saving Tips for Quick Minestrone Soup
- Cut your veggies ahead of time. You can keep them in the fridge for up to 24 hours so all you need to do is cook when it’s time for dinner!
- Use a food processor to make chopping carrots, onions + garlic SO quick.
- Use canned beans- I try to find ones that are low sodium and always rinse/drain them.
- If using dried beans, make sure to cook them ahead of time. Store in a container in your refrigerator until you’re ready to cook
Ingredients:
We got most of these ingredients from Thrive Market! It’s my favorite online grocery retailer and the prices are awesome! (You can read more in my Thrive Market Review)
Thrive Market does have a membership fee.. but in our opinion, it’s totally worth it! Now is the perfect time to sign up because you get a free gift and 30% off your first order!
Substitutions
Oil: Avocado oil or butter can be used in place of olive oil.
Veggies: Some minestrone soup recipes add chopped zucchini – I prefer to omit this because I think it gets too mushy, but you can add it if you like it. Feel free to also add more carrots/celery if you want to up the veggies! Some people also like to add small pieces of chopped potatoes – you can add them in when you’re sautéing carrots/celery/onion. Green beans are also a traditional vegetable in minestrone, feel free to add them.
Beans: I usually use cooked kidney beans to save time. You could also cook your own, or sub with navy beans, cannellini beans, or great northern beans. Feel free to double the amount of beans for extra protein in this recipe!
Dried Beans: If you’d like to use dried beans in this recipe, cook them before adding them to the soup. You’ll need about 1.5 cups cooked beans. You can use any beans in this recipe. White beans or cannellini beans would make a great substitute.
Broth: You can use chicken broth, beef broth, or bone broth for the liquid in this recipe!
Pasta: You can use any small pasta. Elbows or ‘macaroni’ are my favorites, but ditalini also work, and I’ve even seen people use broken spaghetti! Use gluten-free pasta to make the soup gluten free.
Low Sodium: If you’re watching your salt intake – omit the salt from the recipe or add it at the end to taste. Also, make sure to check your canned beans/broth. Look for low or no salt added beans/broth.
Fresh Herbs: Substitute 2 tablespoons of fresh herbs for 1 teaspoon of dried herbs.
Spinach: You can use fresh or frozen baby spinach. I haven’t tried this soup with chopped kale, but I think it would be great.
Parmesan Cheese Rind: A parmesan rind is optional but highly recommended as it adds a ton of flavor. You can find them at most specialty grocers near the cheese section. If you are vegan/dairy free- omit this from the recipe.
Adding meat:
- You can sauté bacon or pancetta when sautéing your veggies. It does add flavor, but I honestly prefer it without.
- Add cooked ground turkey or ground beef to this soup and it would be delicious! Italian sausage would also add flavor!
- Stir in cooked rotisserie chicken or cooked shredded chicken for more flavor or follow this Easy Chicken Minestrone Soup.
How to make Easy Minestrone Soup:
Making minestrone vegetable soup is so easy. That’s why this is called ‘Easy Minestrone Soup’!
- Heat your olive oil in the pan. Sauté onions, garlic, celery, and carrots until they’re soft.
- Add in broth, tomato sauce, and spices. Bring to a boil.
- Once the soup is boiling, stir in pasta.
- Cook the pasta until it’s just al dente – make sure not to overcook the pasta! It will continue to cook a bit after you shut the heat off.
- Stir in your kidney beans and spinach.
- Serve & enjoy!
Serving Suggestion
Minestrone soup is best served with a big piece of fresh bread, and lots of parmesan cheese!
Chopped fresh basil and cracked black pepper also add a lot of flavor! It’s great alongside our Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad or served with some cooked Roasted Chicken for more protein.
Storage
Help: My soup is too thick! As the soup sits, the pasta will absorb the broth/liquid and become thicker. Don’t worry! Just add more broth when you’re ready to eat your leftovers.
Reheating: This soup will last in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. You can reheat it in the crockpot, microwave or on the stove. The pasta will absorb some of the liquid overnight so you can just add some broth when reheating or enjoy it thicker
Freezing: You can freeze this soup, but it isn’t as good once it has been frozen. The pasta can get a little mushy – but it’s still totally edible! We like these containers for freezing.
We have a whole post on the best way to freeze soup!
Can you make this Vegan Minestrone Soup in the crockpot?
Yes, you can make minestrone in the crockpot – but I would really recommend making it on the stovetop. It’s super quick!
I’ve included crockpot instructions for this soup below. It’s important to note that you don’t add the beans/spinach to the crockpot until you’re ready to eat the soup. If you let them cook in the soup they will turn to mush!
Other healthy soup recipes:
We love soup recipes and have rounded up 35 Healthy Soup Recipes. We also have a free Healthy Soup Ebook you can download here!
Don’t forget – Thrive Market is still giving away a free gift and 30% off when you join. Click here to try out Thrive Market!
Easy Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 cup minced celery
- 1 cup minced onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 quart low sodium vegetable stock
- 28 ounces canned tomato sauce
- 2 cups water
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon salt optional
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 Parmesan cheese rind optional
- 8 ounces short grain pasta about 2 cups
- 10 ounces cooked kidney beans rinsed and drained
- 2 ounces frozen chopped spinach
Instructions
Stove Top Instructions
- In a large pot, heat olive oil. Sauté carrots, celery, onion and garlic for about 5 minutes until translucent.
- Add vegetable broth, tomato sauce, water, black pepper, basil, oregano, parsley, salt, red pepper flakes, bay leaf and parmesan cheese rind to the pot. Stir together, cover the pot and bring to a boil.
- Once soup is boiling, add pasta. Cook uncovered for half the recommended cook time on the pasta package. Do NOT overcook the pasta, because it will continue to cook slightly after you take it off the heat!
- Once pasta is partially cooked, remove from heat and stir in cooked beans and spinach.
- Discard Parmesan rind and bay leaves before serving.
- Note: The pasta will absorb a significant amount of the liquid. Add more broth if you like a thinner soup.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Set the instant pot to Sauté for 5 minutes. Heat olive oil. Sauté onions, garlic, carrots and celery for 5 minutes until translucent.
- While vegetables are cooking, drain + rinse beans.
- Add in the spices, water, broth and parmesan cheese rind. Pour the tomato sauce on top. Do not stir it. (Tomato sauce can trigger a burn notice in the instant pot!)
- Cover the pot and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes. Once the soup has cooked for 3 minutes, do a quick release of any remaining pressure.
- While the soup cooks, boil a separate pot of water and cook your pasta. Do not cook your pasta In the instant pot with everything else, it will over cook.
- Once pressure has been released, remove parmesan cheese rind. Stir in cooked beans, raw spinach, cooked pasta and serve warm!
Crockpot Instructions
- In a large pot, heat olive oil. Sauté onions, garlic, carrots and celery for about 5 minutes until translucent.
- While vegetables are cooking, drain + rinse beans.
- Add cooked vegetables, tomato sauce, spices, stock, water and parmesan cheese rind to the crockpot base. Stir together and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
- 10 minutes before serving, stir in raw pasta. Cover and set to high. Your pasta may need 5-10 more minutes depending on cook time.
- When ready to serve, discard parmesan cheese rind. Stir in cooked beans and raw spinach.
WOW! This one was so good! I’ve never had a minestrone before, it gave me goulash vibes slightly.
I have to say thank you to you two, your recipes have truly been such a blessing to me and was an answer to a prayer. I see how much time, and effort and detail
You put into this and your passion for it screams so from the heart. THANK YOU!!!!
P.s. this is my first comments but I’ve tried to many of your recipes. I’ll be sure to leave a review on the ones I’ve tried.
Excellent flavor, super easy. Next time, I’ll use about half the amount of pasta…the 2 cups absorbed ALL the broth. I added more and some additional seasoning and it was still good, though.
Made this tonight and my 7 year old granddaughter said it’s the best soup she ever had. That’s high praise!
Made it oil free and without the Parmesan ribs.
Looking forward to try this one…if you cook pasta separate ( I use GF pasta and worried about it getting mushy) do I just omit the water???
No, you can follow the recipe as is and just cook your pasta on the side. Good idea to cook it separate 🙂
I am a PICKY Italian when it comes to homecooking. This recipe is both easy, hearty and delicious!
So easy and SO good! My family loved it 😊❤️
I am looking for a good recipe to cook for my vegan friends and this looks like a keeper. I totally plan to use it but I have a question. Why add 2 cups of water to the broth rather than just use 6 cups of veggie broth?
The water dilutes the tomatoes. You could use veggie broth if you want
This soup was really good! The only ingredient I didn’t have was spinach. Added a bit of frozen corn as well. Used ground chicken for the meat component. The only thing was it absorbed SO MUCH stock. I didn’t even put in the full 2 cups of pasta. I added atleast 2 more cups. I wish I had of in the beginning as I put in Parmesan rinds which added nice flavour but only to part of the stock. All-in-all a good soup;)
I’m confused. Ingredient list says tomato sauce. Instructions say add tomatoes. Which is it?
I’m not sure where the confusion is. The recipe calls for tomato sauce and says to add it! There are no whole tomatoes in this recipe, just tomato sauce 🙂
This recipe was so easy to make and the soup is delicious! Minimal ingredients and done very quick. Even my toddler kept asking for more! I will definitely be making this soup again!
Love this recipe! When I have some veggies ready to expire that I haven’t eaten I throw in my food processor to mince . So easy to make , so tasty and I use my souper cubes to freeze for future meals .