Easy Italian Minestrone Soup; a hearty, healthy one-bowl wholesome mixed vegetable and pasta soup, perfect for a quick lunch or dinner! Serve with crusty toasted bread and a fresh summer salad!
When I start to run out of vegetables in the fridge, but still need something wholesome and healthy to feed the family, I normally reach out to a quick soup. Summers or winters, this is our family-favorite classic Italian minestrone soup! With a few slices of toasted bread and a lovely fresh salad, everyone feels full, good and happy! It’s a hearty, easy, delicious meal that you can make with a couple of pantry staples and whatever fresh vegetables you happen to have on hand.
How to make Minestrone Soup:
This is a very versatile soup with fresh vegetables, some protein and a simple carbohydrate like pasta and Italian seasoning or dried oregano to make it Italian! Just sauté some onions, celery (optional) and garlic in a little oil with some herbs like dried oregano, Italian seasoning, green chillies/jalapenos/crushed red chillies, dried basil or a combination of dried herbs. Then it is time to add the rest.
The Vegetables:
The fun and easy part of making this soup is you can add any seasonal vegetable you have in your fridge. I have added carrot, bell pepper/capsicum, celery (optional) and mushrooms. This is all I had that I felt would give a lovely texture to the soup. You can add zucchini, cauliflower, corn, green beans, peas or even spinach or kale; just add leafy greens at the end just before removing the soup from heat; you need them just to wilt and become soft. Tomato is of course the base of every minestrone soup. In this version, I have used fresh tomatoes which I feel are the best! If you have canned tomatoes you can use that. To thicken the soup, I have stirred in some tomato puree/paste.
The Protein:
I had some cooked garbanzo beans that I had kept aside before making some Amristari chole that I had made earlier to enjoy with some puffy deep fried Indian bhaturas! I decided to add these to the soup. (Whenever I cook beans like white, black, red kidney beans or even some black-eyed beans or garbanzo beans for any Indian curry, I keep aside some to mix into a salad or soup!). For a quicker version, you can use canned beans too. If you like meat or seafood, stir in cooked chicken, shrimp etc. For the vegetarians, you have the favorite of all Indians, paneer (Indian cottage cheese) or you can even substitute with the high-protein tofu.
The Pasta:
Coming to the pasta; the smaller the pasta the better. You can use macaroni, shell pasta or even rotini pasta which is the one I have used. Just precook them (according to package instructions) and add at the end just before serving. If they are added early on, they will continue to absorb the liquid in the soup and make it thicker! My mother loathes any kind of pasta, so I serve her soup without any pasta. If you keep a bowl of cooked fresh pasta on the dining table, everyone can add their own; as much or as little as they want or not at all like my mother. A few months back, I had even used Ditalini, little bite sized tubular pasta in my homemade minestrone soup to warm me up in the winter!
The Final Garnish:
Just a sprinkle of fresh parsley, cilantro or even celery leaves and a dash of grated Parmesan cheese or grated mozzarella if you cannot find Parmesan. I love to add mozzarella or even grated cheddar sometimes; love the ooey, gooey, melting cheese in every spoonful of soup! Be ready to dig into a sumptuous, belly-filling healthy wholesome soup! So, head on to your kitchen right now and make this quick soup today! Serve with a big bowl of fresh salad on the side in summer or some toasted bread!
Enjoy and Happy Cooking! Pair this soup with a large bowl of salad. Choose from:
Zesty Three-Bean Salad with Walnuts and Pomegranate Middle Eastern Tabouli Mediterranean Greek Salad
PIN here for later:
Cook Time: 15 minutes
1 cup cooked rotini pasta (I have used natural tomato and spinach flavored) 1 medium-sized onion 2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced or chopped 2 large green chillies/jalapenos 1 stalk celery, chopped 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced ½ bell pepper/capsicum, cubed ½ cup sliced mushrooms 2 large tomatoes, chopped ¼ to ½ cup tomato puree or paste ½ cup cooked chickpeas/garbanzo/chole beans (white beans, black beans, red kidney beans etc.) ½ tsp dried oregano leaves ½ tsp dried Italian seasoning Salt to taste Pinch of sugar (depending upon the sourness of the tomatoes) 2 tablespoons of olive oil/any cooking oil Cilantro/coriander leaves or celery leaves for garnishing Grated Parmesan or mozzarella cheese/cheddar cheese
Instructions Notes If you do not have any cooked beans, just omit it. Feel free to add any favorite protein of your choice. It could be any cooked meat, seafood, paneer, tofu, cooked beans etc.
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