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.
How to make Minestrone Soup
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!
This Italian Soup is easily the most flavorful version I’ve ever tasted!
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!)
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!
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
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 12 bowls
Full of flavor, this Italian Minestrone Soup is healthy, hearty, and so delicious!
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.
Courses Dinner
Cuisine Italian
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 bowl
Amount Per Serving | ||
|---|---|---|
% Daily Value |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Check out these other delicious soup recipes:
Flu Fighter Chicken Noodle Soup
20-Minute Sriracha Shrimp Ramen
Jean Robinson says
January 26, 2017 at 3:37 pmTried 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.
Lilly says
August 5, 2017 at 10:32 pmI’ve always loved Italian cuisine and this soup goes straight to my to do list. Nice pictures, I could almost taste them
Lorraine Chacon says
November 28, 2017 at 2:10 amQuestion: when do you use the Crushed red pepper. I can’t find it
Theresa Mall says
December 12, 2017 at 7:26 amI 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!
mitha delia says
February 26, 2018 at 2:57 pmthanks for his knowledge has been sharing tips on making a delicious and delicious soup
Jessica says
March 20, 2018 at 11:27 amWe’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.
Jeanne says
May 16, 2018 at 11:57 pmDelicious! 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,,
Marianne says
October 4, 2018 at 3:35 amThis doup was absolutely delicious. So flavorful. Definitely a keeper.
bakerbynature says
October 6, 2018 at 5:39 pmYay! So happy you enjoyed it, Marianne 🙂
Melissa says
October 9, 2018 at 12:34 amSo delicious! The pancetta gave it that perfect touch!
MairaNutrition says
January 3, 2019 at 5:36 amI’ve always loved Italian cuisine and this soup goes straight to my to do list. Nice pictures, I could almost taste them
Julie says
January 4, 2019 at 3:07 amI 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
Talina says
March 3, 2019 at 2:56 amJust 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!
Hannah says
March 18, 2019 at 12:55 amMade 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!
bakerbynature says
March 24, 2019 at 12:05 pmYay! So happy you and your family enjoyed it!