Minestrone Soup is the sort of soup that keeps life interesting – it’s filled to the brim with a variety of vegetables, potato, beans and pasta, in a thick tomato broth that’s full of savoury flavour. Nobody ever leaves the table dissatisfied after hoovering down a bowl of this!
Minestrone Soup
It’s hearty, it’s chunky, it comes fully loaded and the savoury tomato soup broth is full of flavour thanks to a few extra little touches that make all the difference: bacon sautéed until golden, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and the final touch – parmesan stirred in the soup as well as sprinkled on top.
So if you’ve ever made and been unimpressed by a Minestrone Soup before – I promise you, this one will not disappoint! (Because I’ve been there too, which is essentially why I ended up just creating my own. 😇)
What goes in Minestrone Soup
Fair warning – I put everything but the kitchen sink in my minestrone soup! 😂 I like mine with lots of variety. But actually, it means the add ins for minestrone soup are highly customisable (circled in the photo below).
The secret ingredients for the minestrone soup broth are bacon, parmesan and Worcestershire sauce, and a touch of tomato paste which thickens the broth nicely as well has driving home the tomato flavour. Together, they add extra flavour that takes what can sometimes be a pretty meh! soup into give me seconds! Thirds!
Best pasta for Minestrone Soup?
Small pasta works best for easier eating and also they don’t bloat as much as large pasta (like rigatoni) when leftovers are left in the broth.
I used Ditalini (very small tubes, pictured above) but any small pasta works fine – try tiny shells, risoni / orzo, small macaroni or even alphabet or tiny star shaped pasta!
How to make Minestrone Soup
There’s no denying there’s a fair amount of veggie chopping involved, but the good news is that the cooking part all happens in one pot!
After sautéing the bacon, garlic and onion, the veggies get added in the time it takes to cook. So if you’re customising your add ins – and I thoroughly encourage you to – start with the vegetables that can hold up to long cook times first, and faster cooking vegetables last.
PRO TIP: Cook the pasta to just before al dente – take the pot off the stove at the recommended cook time per packet MINUS 1 1/2 minutes. The pasta will finish cooking in the residual heat to perfect al dente, then the pasta will hold up fine even stored IN the broth for 2 to 3 days. It does soften more but it doesn’t go unpleasantly mushy.
Using small pasta also helps with this (larger pasta and long string pasta bloats more, breaks apart etc).
What to serve with Minestrone Soup
The nice thing about Minestrone Soup is that it comes fully loaded with plenty of vegetables (not just the chopped fresh vegetables, but also the canned tomato and onion counts towards your daily veg intake!) plus starch (beans, pasta, potato).
So it’s a complete meal in a bowl that’s hearty, satisfying, and keeps you full. And pretty healthy too, if you opt for lean bacon!
But nobody says no to crusty bread for dunking – especially if it’s warm and slathered in butter. Try this crusty Artisan Bread (pretty sure it’s officially the world’s easiest yeast bread recipe). And if you’re out of yeast, try this no yeast Sandwich Bread, Irish Soda Bread or Flatbread – all easy, all terrific! – Nagi x
Breads to serve with Minestrone Soup
Watch how to make it
Note on video error! One of the cans of tomato I tipped into the pot was WHOLE tomato instead of crushed. So off camera, I stuck my hand into the pot and crushed them myself. 😂
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Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 150g / 5oz bacon , finely chopped
- 1 onion , chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 800g/ 28oz crushed tomato (or 700g passata)
- 2 cups chicken stock/broth , low sodium
- 2 cups water
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 400g/ 14oz canned kidney beans , drained
- 1 tsp EACH salt and pepper
- 1 cup small pasta , like ditalini, tiny shells, risoni/orzo, baby macaroni, alphabet or star pasta
- 1/4 cup parmesan , grated
Minestrone Vegetables (Note 1):
- 1 celery rib* , chopped 1.5cm / 1/2″ pieces
- 1 large carrot* , peeled and diced 1.5cm / 1/2″ pieces
- 1 zucchini* , chopped 1.5cm / 1/2″ pieces
- 1 potato* , cut into 1.5cm / 1/2″ pieces (peel if needed)
- 100g / 3oz green beans* , trimmed then cut into 2cm / 3/5″ lengths
- 2oz/ 60g baby spinach (or frozen spinach, kale or similar – can leave out)
For serving – optional:
- More parmesan
- Chopped parsley
- Crusty bread for dunking!
Instructions
- Heat oil over high heat in a very large pot.
- Add bacon, cook until starting to turn golden (~2 min) then add garlic and onion.
- Cook until onion is translucent and bacon is light golden ~ 2minutes.
- Add carrot, celery and zucchini. Stir for 1 minute to coat in flavour.
- Add crushed tomato, chicken stock, water, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, kidney beans, salt and pepper.
- Stir, bring to simmer, then place lid on and adjust heat so it’s simmering gently.
- Simmer 20 minutes, then add potato and beans.
- Simmer 5 minutes, then add pasta. Cook for time per pasta packet MINUS 1 1/2 minutes.
- Remove from stove, stir through parmesan and baby spinach. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper.
- Serve, garnished with extra parmesan and a sprinkle of parsley if desired. Warm crusty bread on the side would certainly be the cherry on top!
Recipe Notes:
- Increase parmesan to 3/4 cup (75g)
- Add 2 tsp Vegeta (or other vegetable stock powder) instead of salt (then add salt at end to taste)
- (For meat free vegetarians) Use 3 anchovies (finely chopped) or 2 tsp anchovy paste – add it halfway through cooking onion, it will dissolve. Adds a good hit of umami into broth, no sign of fishiness once simmered
Nutrition Information:
More hearty soups
Life of Dozer
Dozer leading the pack, chasing a water bird!
Hi Nagi, I’m Federica, I’m Italian and the minestrone is really an Italian dish, as you know …
but surely in Italy you don’t put Bacon in the minestrone, some regions of the north put sweet bacon, and certainly not the Worcestershire sauce!
I live in Genoa, we put Genoese Pesto, you should try …
bye, see you soon
Federica
Hi Federica, I love hearing all the different versions of this dish! N x
I’ve been hoping you would post minestrone one day! Thanks Nagi 🙂
You’re so welcome Mia! N x
i also add parmesan rind to the soup it gives it a wonderful flavor,everyone looks for the rind and they gobble it up,i also cook my minestrone with smoked hocks so soup takes longer to cook.
YUM! I love this idea Elaine! N x
Hands down one of the nicest soups I’ve ever made (and I’ve made a few!). Incredibly full of flavour, heart and warming on these cooler nights. Thank you Nagi for your recipes!
You’re so welcome Christine, thanks so much for the great feedback ❤️
Just finishing off slow cooked beef stroganoff tonight, and this landed in mailbox. Yum! I have heaps of veg in fridge, so this will be on the menu for Friday night, probs leftovers for Sunday night soup night, and your no knead artisan bread! Perhaps with rissoni? Week almost planned. Thanks Nagi. Kate xx
YUM!! Sounds perfect Kate, love to know what you think once you try it! N x
On a worrying day in Eastern Australia when over 3000 people in a cluster of high-rises lost their right to leave their homes trying to contain a second wave of the current viral crisis , , , and we learned the Vic/NSW border would be closed for the first time in a 100 years we need something that we know, trust and love. Come winter or summer for many of us this is soup. Is there one of us who does not love minestrone – mother’s milk for many ! Thank you for a fab recipe !! Make mine the same way . . . perchance have not used Worcester . . . know it will be medicine making everything just a tad better . . .
It’s tragic isn’t it Eha, hoping we can all get through this second wave again quickly 😩
I hope you try my version of minestrone, love to know what you think – everyone has their own little twist on it don’t they?! N x
Wow Nagi! This is almost EXACTLY the way we made it a couple of weeks ago, so this recipe would be delicious. Totally agree with your pasta comments and cooking times – we used macaroni. We only did one thing differently: we had a small portion of speck, so slowly rendered the fat from that, used that instead of oil, then chopped up the remaining meat and added to the bacon, etc. It added a hint of smokiness.
You’ve just inspired me to make more minestrone this week – with your fabulous, and easy!, artisan bread.
Thank you for your great recipes Nagi! H
Yum!!! Sounds great Heather!! N x
Where does Dozer swim?
It’s more like – where doesn’t Dozer swim!! 😂
Hi Nagi, this looks delicious! My partner is vegetarian – any ideas for a good bacon replacement? I’ve found with other recipes when I take out the bacon without a replacement it can be a bit bland. Thanks very much! Soph
Hi Soph, I talk about this in the recipe notes. N x
Yummmm! It’s extremely hot here now, but this soup still sounds wonderful! Definitely sounds like it would have more flavor than the usual minestrone recipes. The pic of Dozer in the water is beautiful, even though I can’t see much of Dozer.
You’ll love it Barb – one to file away for the cooler months 🙂 N x