What is Minestrone Soup?
Minestrone Soup is a common and traditional Italian soup made with a tomato-y broth and vegetables such as beans, onions, carrots, and celery. Italian home cooks often cook with whatever ingredients are fresh and seasonal, so the actual ingredients can vary from family to family and from month to month. While our take on minestrone is vegetarian with beans for added protein, this soup could just as easily have meat in it. Really, anything goes when it comes to Minestrone! It’s an excellent way to use up extra bits of produce left in your fridge, and no matter what you add to it, it’s always tasty.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
If you’re looking for a recipe for Minestrone Soup from the Olive Garden, you’ll be so glad you found this one! Olive Garden is known for its amazing soups, like Zuppa de Toscana, Pasta e Fagioli, Chicken Gnocchi, and Minestrone. Unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks was always my favorite thing to order at the Olive Garden because I could potentially have a little bit of all four soups! You won’t need to leave the house to enjoy a big, hearty pot of this vegetable soup, because I’m sharing the easy recipe so you can make it at home. This minestrone soup recipe is just as good – or probably better – than you’d find at any restaurant.
Key Ingredients in Minestrone Soup
Here’s what you need to make this classic Italian minestrone soup recipe:
Onion, Carrot, and Celery: In Italy, these three together are known as soffritto, and are the basis for all delicious soups, stews, and sauces. Garlic: Three whole cloves please, minced finely. Vegetable Stock: I always have some of this in my freezer (it’s simple to make it from scratch with my veggie stock recipe), and it’s perfect for this vegetarian soup. Store-bought vegetable stock can also be used. Canned Tomatoes: Much of the rich flavor of this soup comes from a can of diced tomatoes and a few tablespoons of tomato paste. Beans: I am using red kidney beans and white cannellini beans in my minestrone today, but you can really use any beans you enjoy or whatever is hanging around in your pantry! Be sure to drain and rinse canned beans well before using them. Veggies: Spinach, green beans and zucchini are traditional vegetables that you’ll find in an Italian minestrone, and they’re in the Olive Garden version too! That said, any vegetables are welcome in this pot, so feel free to add whatever you like. Pasta: Look for any small “soup pasta” like ditalini, small shells, or macaroni. The pasta is cooked in the soup so that it absorbs the flavor of the broth and releases its starch to slightly thicken the soup. Parmesan Cheese: A little bit (or a lot!) of freshly grated parmesan cheese is the perfect finishing touch for minestrone. Leave it out to make this recipe vegan!
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
How To Make This Minestrone Soup Recipe
Recipe Tips
Add some heat! A dash of red pepper flakes will add a bit of spice to the soup. Try Other Veggies. Instead of spinach, try chopped kale or Swiss chard. Yellow squash can easily be used instead of zucchini, or you can switch up the veggies entirely. Get creative! Drain the Beans. Canned beans should be drained and rinsed before adding them to the soup. We don’t want or need the liquid in those cans. Don’t drain the tomatoes. When it comes to canned tomatoes, we definitely DO want the juice from the can, so be sure not to drain it away.
Storing Tips
Keep leftover Minestrone soup in an airtight container in the fridge. It should stay good for up to 4 days. If you’re planning to have leftovers, it’s best to cook and store the pasta separately so that it doesn’t become too soft. The soup may thicken a bit after being refrigerated. If needed, add a splash of water when you reheat it so that it’s perfect again.
What To Serve With Minestrone Soup
If you were enjoying a bowl of Olive Garden Minestrone, you’d definitely need to have some soft, garlicky Olive Garden Breadsticks and an Olive Garden Salad, so try making those at home using my easy copycat recipes! Homemade minestrone is also delicious with a hunk of rustic, crusty bread.
What vegetables are in Minestrone?
Here we’re using carrots, celery, and onions, plus green beans, spinach, and zucchini. I suggest sticking with the first three, but you can add other veggies, or replace the ones used in the recipe. Try sauteed mushrooms, shredded cabbage, cauliflower, wax beans, or frozen peas.
What Type of Beans To Use for Minestrone?
Any kind of beans will work! Instead of kidney beans and cannellini beans, try chickpeas, butter beans, or navy beans.
Is There Pasta in Minestrone?
Most minestrone recipes call for adding pasta. It keeps the soup filling and hearty! If you’d prefer to leave the pasta out, you absolutely can. You can also replace it with a different type of starch, like rice or quinoa. This Olive Garden-style Minestrone Soup might be the easiest soup recipe you’ll make this year and it’s the perfect cozy pick-me-up for a cold day. Pin it, and share it with all of your soup-loving friends! © Little Sunny Kitchen
