Finding yourself with leftover vegetables? Try this easy and healthy one pot Minestrone Soup full of classic Italian flavours! #minestronesoup #minestrone #vegansoup #veganrecipes #souprecipe #vegetables #onepotmeal | Recipe on thecookandhim.com

Posted in Recipes on 24.04.2020

Easy Minestrone Soup Recipe

prep: 15 mins / cook: 30 mins / inactive: 0 mins / total: 45 mins / quantity: 4 generous portions Print recipe?

Finding yourself with leftover vegetables? Try this easy and healthy one pot Minestrone Soup full of classic Italian flavours!

Traditionally, Minestrone Soup has always been made with a view to using up leftover vegetables, so don’t worry too much if you don’t have exactly what’s listed in the ingredients. Mix it up, using whatever you have to hand or needs using.

You can cook your own beans or use tinned ones, again whichever is easiest or you have to use.

How to make this classic chunky Italian soup

The beauty of minestrone soup (and a lot of other soups for that matter) is just how easy it is to make. It’s a one pot affair and is finished in a few simple steps with an abundance of flavour from just a few simple store cupboard ingredients:

Prep and chop all your veg
Saute the veg
Add the liquids and bubble
Add the pasta and beans and bubble again
Serve

It really is as uncomplicated as that. And what you get is a really hearty bowl of soup. And downright healthy goodness and flavour.

Don’t have the same specific veg but have stuff that needs using up? You can swap/add almost anything – replace the carrots with any root veg, the courgette for aubergine, the onions for shallots, the kidney beans for cannelini or haricot beans and so on. Add potatoes if they need using, stir in some spinach right before serving and vary the herbs if you need to!

Love easy homemade soup? Try these:

Tomato Soup with Vegan Cheesy Croutons

Red Pepper and Tomato Soup with Roasted Cauliflower

Easy Vegetable Soup

The last time I made this minestrone soup recipe I got a phone call from my (to-be) sister in law just after it had finished cooking asking if they could visit. Side note, this was all pre-Coronavirus (remember life then?) and pre-lockdown. Those heady days when you could just pop to visit friends, family and in-laws. When you could go out for a drive just because. When emotions weren’t on a daily roller coaster of I’m fine to I’m really not fine.

Anyhoo …

I’d made a giant pot of this to photograph for the blog and freeze for future easy meals (because yes, this soup freezes perfectly). I’d made crusty Oat Bread to go with it and then got to share all this delicious goodness with my family. Anyone else a feeder? *Waves* I get disproportional pleasure from feeding people. Always have.

And there was something ridiculously homely and comforting about having a giant pot of homemade Minestrone Soup sitting in the middle of the table with crusty homemade bread and everyone just helping themselves.

The meal was finished off with this Pistachio and Orange Cake – because I only had a few minutes to throw something together for dessert and this is beyond easy to make. Served warm with some vegan Swedish Glace vanilla ice cream and I tell you, we rolled off the dining chairs onto the sofa. Good times 😉

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Easy Minestrone Soup Recipe

prep: 15 mins / cook: 30 mins / inactive: 0 mins / total: 45 mins / quantity: 4 generous portions

Ingredients

Drizzle of oil
1 red onion – peeled and finely diced
2 sticks celery – finely diced
2 carrots – peeled and roughly diced
3 large cloves garlic – peeled and crushed
1 small or 1/2 large courgette – roughly diced
2 sprigs fresh rosemary – needles only or 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
2 sprigs fresh thyme – leaves only or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 cups (500ml) passata
2 cups (500ml) vegetable stock
2 tblsp tomato puree
1 + 1/2 cups (100g) pasta (see note)
1 + 1/2 cups (400g can) cooked kidney beans
handful of green beans – ends trimmed and beans cut in half
1-2 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper

Large saucepan

Instructions

Put a drizzle of oil to a large saucepan and add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic and saute for 5 minutes, stirring frequently
Add the courgette and herbs and saute for another 5 minutes
Stir in the passata, vegetable stock and tomato puree then bubble for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are softened - you don't want them still to be crunchy but you do want a little bit of bite to them (al dente)
Add the pasta, kidney beans and green beans, stir and simmer for 10 minutes until the pasta is just cooked
Taste and add sugar, salt and pepper
Serve immediately or cool and chill or freeze

Notes

For the pasta I used fusilli twists but use whatever shapes you have
Don't have the same specific veg but have stuff that needs using up? You can swap/add almost anything - replace the carrots with any root veg, the courgette for aubergine, the onions for shallots, the kidney beans for cannelini or haricot beans and so on. Add potatoes if they need using, stir in some spinach right before serving and vary the herbs if you need to!