Old-Fashioned Minestrone Soup

Name: Old-Fashioned Minestrone Soup
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 90 min
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 medium (about 9 oz) onion (diced to 1/2 inch (12 mm)); 1 large (about 3 oz) carrot (peeled and diced to 1/2 inch (12 mm)); 2 medium (about 4 oz) celery sticks (diced to 1/2 inch (12 mm)); 3 1/2 ounces red potato (peeled and diced to 1/2 inch (12 mm)); 2 to 3 garlic cloves (minced); 5 1/2 ounces zucchini (diced to 1/2 inch (12 mm)); One (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes (undrained); 6 cups water or vegetable stock (plus more if needed); One (14-ounce) can borlotti or cannellini beans (drained and rinsed); 3 1/2 ounces tiny pasta shells; 3 1/2 ounces green beans (cut into 1-inch (25-mm) lengths (or substitute asparagus)); 3 1/2 ounces lacinto kale (stems trimmed and leaves roughly chopped); Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 4 tablespoons store-bought or homemade pesto (for serving)

Jump to Recipe

This minestrone soup is an updated Italian classic made in the old-fashioned way with the usual carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, kale, zucchini, beans, and pasta…along with an unexpected drizzle of pesto that transforms a frugal veggie-bin catch-all into something that’s truly astounding.

Three bowls of minestrone soup with a small bowl of pesto on the side.

Adapted from Julia Azzarello | Skinny Pasta | Kyle Books, 2019

Minestrone is such a versatile soup. It is basically an assortment of vegetables, some sort of bean and pasta. In Liguria, minestrone is topped with pesto.

This is a Ligurian version with borlotti beans, other regions use cannellini or white beans. This version uses mostly winter vegetables; try it in the spring with asparagus and broad beans. In the summer, try it chilled.–Julia Azzarello

☞ Contents

Why our testers loved this

There’s a whole bunch of reasons our recipe testers happily slurped up this old-fashioned minestrone soup. They found it to be simple and straightforward, and loved that the addition of pesto “took the soup to a whole new level.”

Trisha T. joined in with her comment, “This minestrone soup was everything we wanted it to be—chock full of vegetables, filling, and delicious. We absolutely loved every bite of this soup and look forward to making it again.”

Notes on ingredients

Fresh vegetables–This recipe uses a wide variety of vegetables and is excellent as written, but if you’ve got some extra veggies hanging out in your crisper, feel free to substitute them here.
Pasta–Any small pasta will work here, whether ditalini, orzo, or pastina. Substitute gluten-free pasta to make the soup suitable for gluten-free diets.
Pesto–Use your favorite homemade or store-bought pesto to really elevate the soup. We love it with classic Genovese pesto or carrot top pesto, but you could also try mint or kale pesto.

How to make this recipe

Cook the vegetables. Sauté the onion, carrot, celery, and potato in the oil until softened. Add the garlic and zucchini and cook for 2 minutes.
Simmer the soup. Stir in the tomatoes and water or broth and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the beans, pasta, green beans, and kale, and cook until tender.
Serve the minestrone soup. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Divvy between serving bowls and swirl in a dollop of pesto.

Recipe FAQs

What’s the difference between vegetable soup and minestrone?

Minestrone is a vegetable soup, strictly speaking, but it’s better. The addition of beans and pasta bulks up minestrone in a way that other soup falls short. Think of it as veggie soup plus.

Does traditional minestrone contain meat?

No. Classic minestrone soup doesn’t contain meat or fish.

What should I serve this with?

This healthy soup is chock full of vegetables. It’s a meal in itself, but we’re always happy to have a loaf of warm crusty bread alongside for dipping and dunking.

Helpful tips

Leftover soup can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days. The pasta may absorb more liquid as it sits, so add a splash of broth or water when reheating it to loosen the soup.
We don’t recommend freezing this soup as the potatoes and pasta may become mushy after thawing and reheating.
This is suitable for dairy-free, vegan, and vegetarian diets. To make it gluten-free, use gluten-free pasta.

More great vegetable soup recipes

Each bowl is filled with tomato soup with chickpeas and spinach and topped with yogurt. — Tomato Soup with Chickpeas and Spinach

A steel wok filled with mushrooms, greens, broth, and carrots, with a wooden spoon resting inside — Tomato Soup with Chickpeas and Spinach

☞ If you make this recipe, or any dish on LC, consider leaving a review, a star rating, and your best photo in the comments below. I love hearing from you.–David

Recipe Testers’ Reviews

Trisha T.

This minestrone soup was everything we wanted it to be—chock full of vegetables, filling, and delicious. We absolutely loved every bite of this soup and look forward to making it again.

It required a lot of chopping but was otherwise simple and straightforward. It’s also easily customizable to your tastes.

My partner isn’t a huge fan of green beans so we will definitely substitute asparagus next time. We couldn’t find borlotti beans but cannellini beans were a good substitute.

I couldn’t find tiny shells and used tiny bow ties (farfalline) instead, which were so cute. I think any tiny pasta would work. I used mostly vegetable stock with a little water.

The pesto truly takes the soup to a whole new level and brings it all together.

Laura Tarlo

I think I might have appreciated this old-fashioned minestrone soup a bit more if it were a cold blustery day, but it was 83° and sunny. And I still thought it was fairly tasty. It was quite light and flavorful and would be good for your vegetarian guests.

I prepared the soup in a 5-quart Dutch oven. I used vegetable stock along with borlotti beans. The pasta definitely made the soup thick and I added another 1/2 cup stock. We used Trader Joe’s pesto. The pesto is a definite “must.” Without it, the soup is too bland. A bit more salt and maybe some red pepper flakes would also be good.

In the future, I’d prepare the pasta separately until it was done and then add it to the soup.

Lou Ann Traster

I’ve started to think of this old-fashioned minestrone soup as “100 Gram Minestrone.” I’m hopelessly dedicated to my digital scale and it didn’t take me long to note that almost every ingredient weighs 100 grams, which gives me much more pleasure than it should.

Seasoning at every step was my deviation from the author’s instructions. I’ve learned from one too many bland, watery soups. I also used well-salted homemade vegetable stock.

The last trick was a spectacular dollop of pesto—almost unnecessary on soup this good. I used the pumpkin seed pesto on this site.

Dial up the lemon and the pesto doesn’t even need the cheese. (I usually hold back on the oil and use just enough to moisten the slurry. It’s perfect.)

I used tubetti rigati and pinto beans. I did need to top off leftovers with additional stock after refrigerating overnight. The pasta sucks up the stock a bit.

Patty Fabian

We love good soups and we really LOVED this one!! This was indeed the best minestrone soup we’ve ever had and the swirl of pesto was the perfect finish for this richly flavored vegetable soup. So good!

The only thing I’d change for next time is adding the green beans to the soup along with the cannellini beans and pasta to give them more time to become tender. I used skinny French green beans and 5 minutes wasn’t nearly enough time for them to become tender.

I also added another cup of water to the soup to loosen it up a bit as it was getting thick, which might have been because I used a can of finely chopped tomatoes which had more tomato pulp than regular chopped tomatoes.

This is a very versatile soup, and I can see all kinds of wonderful possibilities with farmers market produce. This soup got a perfect 10 rating from us.

Sarah Kenney

File this old-fashioned minestrone soup recipe away under “what to do with the remnants of the veggie drawer” or “how to make my family eat more vegetables.” I didn’t expect this minestrone to taste better than an average soup and was surprised to find how tasty it was, even before adding the pesto!

This would be great for a meatless Monday supper when entertaining vegetarians or to pack as lunch for the week. You could definitely switch up the veggies, beans, and pasta to use what you have in the pantry.

I used homemade chicken stock and Trader Joe’s radiatore pasta.

Jessica Berndt

You can pretty much always count on me to test a vegetarian soup recipe. We eat a LOT of soup here. And I was particularly intrigued as I had made another minestrone soup recently with dry Borlotti beans and wanted to compare them.

I really enjoyed this recipe. It was super quick to make. It’s much heartier tasting than I had anticipated. And it’s a satisfying meal even before you swirl in the pesto.

Additionally, I still had a bunch of pesto in my freezer from last summer’s basil harvest so I’m psyched to have another way to use it. I could see us making this again and even doubling and tripling the recipe.

This version makes 4 very generous portions. You could probably even squeeze 6 out of it. Serve with some crusty bread and no one is complaining.

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