Name: Easy Minestrone Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 medium onion (diced); 2 cloves garlic (minced); 2 carrots (sliced thinly); 2 stalks celery (sliced thinly); 3 cans diced tomatoes (14 1/2 oz.); 4 cans chicken broth (14 1/2 oz.); 2 teaspoons dried parsley (or 1 tablespoon fresh); 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning; 2 teaspoons dried basil; 1 teaspoon dried oregano; 1 teaspoon salt; pepper to taste; 2 cans kidney beans (drained (15 oz.)); 2 cups shredded cabbage; 1 medium sized zucchini sliced; 1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni

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This Easy Minestrone Soup with kidney beans, chicken broth, dried herbs, and veggies is a healthy and fast family-friendly weeknight meal.

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Minestrone soup comes together in one pot in less than an hour. It’s also easy to make ahead of time and reheat for lunch or dinner the next day.

How to Make Easy Minestrone Soup

This recipe comes together swiftly. I recommend having your ingredients chopped and measured out and ready to go so you can move through the steps smoothly.

In this recipe, the pasta is cooked last. This is because pasta in the soup will continue to expand as it absorbs the broth. Adding the pasta last will allow the pasta to cook without swelling up.

Sautéing your carrots, celery, and onion together makes the foundation of flavor in this soup. Not only do the veggies flavor each other as they cook down, but the oil is also being flavored.

The diced tomatoes do not need to be drained. The tomato juice in the can helps to add to the soup’s flavor and tomato base.

The opposite is true for the beans, be sure to drain the beans and rinse them well. Adding the bean liquid will give the soup a cloudy color because of the starchy liquid.

If you’re pressed for time, you can buy bagged, shredded cabbage in the produce section of your grocery store. Give the cabbage a good chop before adding to your soup as the bagged varieties tend to be cut in longer shreds than you really want.

preparing vegetables for easy minestrone soup

Make-Ahead Tips

If you are making this soup for dinner ahead of time, I have two tips regarding the pasta:

Cook the pasta ahead of time in a separate pot. Drain and rinse it with cold water and refrigerate until ready to use. Then when you reheat your soup, add the pasta and reheat until warm. You don’t want to cook the noodles further, just heat them through.
Or, you can bring the cooked soup back to a boil on the stove. Then add the dry pasta and cook for 10 minutes. Just note that with this option, boiling the soup again for 10 min will continue to soften the veggies.

Serving Suggestions

This healthy vegetable soup is great served with a sprinkling of parmesan and a fluffy homemade Lion House Roll on the side.

collage of steps to cook one pot minestrone

Storing Leftover Minestrone

You can store leftover soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can also freeze minestrone in a freezer-safe container for up to 1 month.

To serve, defrost the soup in the fridge overnight. Then transfer the soup to a bowl and reheat in the microwave. Start with 1 minute and then continue to heat in 10-second intervals if needed until the desired temperature is reached.

Of course, you can also reheat the soup (even from frozen) on the stove.

More Easy Soup Recipes

Try these other healthy and warming soups for dinner next:

Baked Potato Soup is a creamy and comforting meal with crispy bacon on top.
Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup is a light but satisfying dish with pasta, chicken and veggies.
Creamy Instant Pot Tomato Soup with Basil and Parmesan from Pressure Cooking Today is a super fast and family-friendly soup perfect on the side of grilled cheese.

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