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An Authentic Italian Minestrone Soup recipe that’s fast and healthy! Made with carrots and celery, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, and pasta, this meal is hearty and loaded with flavor. Leftovers taste even better the next day!
Minestrone
Happy Thursday! We’re taking a quick break from the sweets today to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year… SOUP SEASON!
Like many people, I love soup for the obvious reasons: it’s warm, cozy, delicious, and comforting. It’s soul food! But as someone who works from home and basically lives at my sink washing dishes (did I ever tell you we don’t have a dishwasher in our apartment?!)… I also love soup because I get multiple meals from one pot! I made this Italian Minestrone Soup last night, ate it for dinner, warmed up a bowl today for lunch, and will continue this pattern until the pot runs dry. If you don’t mind leftovers, soup can make your lunch life so simple and delicious!
Minestrone Soup Recipe
My secret ingredient is pancetta. It’s salty, smokey, and seriously delicious. For our veggies we have onion, carrot, celery, spinach, garlic, and green beans. You’ll also add kidney beans, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, bone broth, Cannellini beans, elbow macaroni, and fresh basil! Finally, you’ll finish the soup off with a fat squeeze of lemon and Parmesan cheese. Those are all of the main minestrone soup ingredients needed for this recipe!
↑How could the combination of those ingredients not be delicious?!? (Seriously just stopped typing right here to go grab another bowl of this soup… I can’t stop!)
How to make Minestrone Soup
- In a large soup pot, cook the pancetta until crispy then set aside. Add in olive oil and onion and cook until the onion. Toss in the celery, carrots, and green beans and cook until they begin to soften. Finally, add in the garlic, Italian seasoning, and tomato paste.
- Next you’ll toss in the tomatoes, chicken broth, and beef broth and bring to a boil. Stir in the beans and pasta and cook until the pasta and vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the basil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper, as needed.
- Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with pancetta bits and parmesan cheese, and ENJOY!!!
Tips and Tricks for Recipe Success:
- I call for bone broth in this recipe because I find it more flavorful and nourishing. If you can’t find it, feel free to sub regular broth instead.
- You’ll also notice I call for chicken bone broth as well as beef bone broth. This gives the soup INCREDIBLE flavor! But again, if you’re having an issue with this, you could use all chicken broth. I don’t recommend using all beef broth. I tried this once and found the broth a little too… meaty tasting, if that makes sense? In my opinion, an equal amount of both will give you the best tasting soup.
- Same thing goes for the beans! I love the combination of Kidney beans and Cannellini beans, but you can use two cans of one variety if preferred.
- You can use fresh or frozen green beans, and if you’re using frozen, don’t worry about thawing them first.
- While I adore elbow macaroni for this recipe, you can use almost any small pasta noodle. I’ve made this with ditalini and even baby bow ties.
- If you happen to have a Parmesan rind in your fridge, toss it in the broth and let it simmer. This adds even more flavor and depth to the broth.
If you’re looking for a meal that’s hearty, healthy, and so comforting, this Italian Minestrone Soup is for you!
Italian Soup Recipes
If you try this recipe for Healthy Minestrone Soup, let me know what you think! Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on instagram! Seeing your creations makes my day.
Italian Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 4 ounces diced pancetta
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 3 large carrots, diced
- 1 and 1/2 cups green beans (trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces)
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 5 tablespoons tomato paste
- (1) 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
- (1) 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken bone broth
- 4 cups low-sodium beef bone broth
- (1) 15 ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- (1) 15 ounce can Cannellini beans
- 1 and 1/2 cups elbow pasta
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium-high heat, cook the pancetta until crispy, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pancetta to a small plate and set aside. Leave any pancetta drippings in the pan. Add in the olive oil and onion and cook until the onion is translucent; about 5 minutes. Add in the celery, carrots, and green beans and cook until they begin to soften, about 8 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the Italian seasoning and tomato paste.
- Add in the diced and crushed tomatoes, chicken broth, and beef broth, stir well to combine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the kidney beans, Cannellini beans, and pasta; cook until the pasta and vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the basil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper, as needed. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with pancetta bits and parmesan cheese, and serve warm.
Tried and true. Lovely soup recipes. The Minestrone Soup and Chicken noodle very easy and tasty. Thank you for all the recipies that I have tried. Sorry that I have not photos.
I’ve always loved Italian cuisine and this soup goes straight to my to do list. Nice pictures, I could almost taste them
Question: when do you use the Crushed red pepper. I can’t find it
I made this recipe for dinner last night, and it was delicious! Your directions did not say when to add the red pepper flakes, so I added them with the Italian seasoning. They gave It just enough of a kick! Thanks for sharing!
thanks for his knowledge has been sharing tips on making a delicious and delicious soup
We’re expecting a big snow storm here in the North East today/tomorrow. Going to whip up some of this soup today. Looks good! Will be great to give to hubby when he’s out plowing.
Delicious! It’s a thicker soup. As I didn’t have all the ingredients I switched out Italian sausage for pancetta, zucchini and cabbage for spinach, garbanzos For cannelli beans. And better than bouillon chicken base and another of vegetable base. IT is very flavorful makes plenty. Thank you,,
This doup was absolutely delicious. So flavorful. Definitely a keeper.
Yay! So happy you enjoyed it, Marianne 🙂
So delicious! The pancetta gave it that perfect touch!
I’ve always loved Italian cuisine and this soup goes straight to my to do list. Nice pictures, I could almost taste them
I made this soup tonight for dinner. I had to change it a little cause I didn’t have all the stuff. I put hamburger in it and next time I won’t do that. It was really good though. I didn’t have Pancetta or fresh spinach. But the flavor was great. I ended up adding my homemade bottled spaghetti sauce to it which gave it a lot of flavor. I wish I didn’t have to change it so much. Next time I’ll be prepared with the right ingredients
Just made the soup and it was fantastic! I changed it up quite a bit but loved how easy it was. Instead of pancetta I used bacon. My mom cant eat garlic, onion, or beef so I left all of those out and used only chicken stock. I also didn’t have any form of tomatoes. I know, I could have been more prepared. I used kidney beans and chickpeas which were really nice. Great base recipe!
Made this soup for the family this week. Huge hit! Flavorful and filling without being heavy. I didn’t use the pancetta but had ground beef on hand so I browned that with the onions while they cooked. We also only had crushed tomatoes, so I just used two cans of those. I loved the thick texture it gave it! All around GREAT recipe. Adding it to the recipe box. Thanks!
Yay! So happy you and your family enjoyed it!
I made it tonight with leftover farmers market veggies. I had to do some substituting but I did the basics. I did use some frozen bacon and a glob of Bella Sun Luci tomato pesto sauce instead of tomato paste. The squeeze of lemon at the end was just right! Thank you!
Looks like a great recipe, looking forward to trying it. However, what is the carb count for this dish? It’s not showing up for some reason.
This is a delicious recipe. I added 1 lb of Italian sausage.
Is this uncooked pasta added to the soup stock or should the pasta be slightly cooked first?
mine was more like a stew in the end. Anyone else’s end up thicker than a typical soup?
This was sooooo delicious! Super happy that I had some leftovers and totally agree, the taste grows with the days!
Whatcha do with the lemon? Squeeze some on when serving?
Do you use Italian herb seasoning or a packet of Italian salad dressing dry seasoning such as “good seasons salad dressing recipes mix “ ?
I used Italian Seasoning from the spices section of the grocery store, it usually comes in a glass or plastic jar. Not salad dressing mix or anything from a packet. I hope that helps!
Ashley,
the picture alone made me want to try your soup and it did not disappoint. I love soups and make one almost every week all year long, got the love of soup from my Mom. I stayed true to your recipe with one exception, did not use the beef stock not too crazy for it so used only chicken stock. The flavors were just amazing. Thank you for this delicious soup.
Hello,
We made the minestrone soup and realized after that we did not add the crush red pepper.
I went back to the recipe and noticed it was in the list of ingredients but no in the directions.
When is it added.
A very hearty and tasty soup. I double the recipe omitting the spinach and pasta so I can freeze half. Then I simply boil pasta on the side and add the spinach while the soup is heating.
So happy you enjoyed the recipe, Linda!
Perfection. This is a wonderful soup. I added sliced mushrooms only because I didn’t want to waste them. I cooked them with the green beans, carrots and celery. I promise I’ve never had a bad recipe from you. Thank you for being a fabulous chef.