Hearty Vegan Minestrone Soup
What is there not to love about a good, authentic vegan minestrone soup? It’s personally one of my favourites. You can’t go wrong with the combination of veggies, beans, and pasta.
The depth of flavour in this soup will win over even the biggest of soup haters. I know when I’ve come up with a great soup recipe when my husband, Michael, turns around and gives me the biggest smile of approval.
The best feeling.
The beautiful thing about a soup like minestrone is that you can mix it up so easily and adapt it to whatever vegetables you have in the fridge.
Free Recipe eBook
Join our newsletter and get our eBook featuring exclusive breakfast recipes to kickstart your mornings.
Some other popular additions to this soup are:
- Green beans
- Zucchini
- Potatoes (something I often add)
- Pumpkin
- Cabbage
- Baby spinach
- Kale
The pasta options are endless
The kinds of pasta that you can use are also unlimited. The reason I went to the shell pasta is that I like to have a slightly bigger shaped pasta in my minestrone and let’s be real for a minute, that’s all I could find in the supermarket at the moment.
With all these restrictions on what you can buy currently, where I live, you can buy two packs of pasta per family and two cans per family.
So I have to be selective, as well as pick from what’s available. More than half the shelves are empty!
Just make sure you adjust the cooking time of the soup when you use pasta that is smaller as it will cook quicker. This pasta takes around 13-14 minutes to cook.
I take it off the heat a couple of minutes before, as it will keep cooking once the heat is turned off.
Traditionally you’ll find cannellini (white beans), borlotti, or kidney used in minestrone soup recipes. However, feel free to use what you have in your pantry.
Also speaking of traditional, the thing that generally makes this soup non-vegan are the options of using smoked bacon, pancetta, beef mince, beef, or chicken stock and cheese.
If you’d like to go for that smokey option with the soup, you can add ½ tsp of smoked paprika to it when you’re adding the herbs. It makes for an excellent addition.
This vegan minestrone is:
- Hearty
- Filling
- Rich
- Healthy
- Nutritious
- Affordable
- Flavourful
Other recipes you’ll love:
- My Lentil Spaghetti Bolognese (Vegan)
- Vegan Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Pasta & Bean Soup)
- Hearty Mung Bean Stew With Kale
- One-Pot French Lentil, Mushroom and Sage Stew
- Vegan Borscht (Beet Soup)
If you try this recipe, let me know! I would love for you to leave a comment and rating below. Want to go that extra mile? Tag us on Instagram or share your photo of the recipe on Pinterest. Don’t want to make it now? Pin it for later!
Print
Hearty Vegan Minestrone Soup
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hours
- Yield: Serves 6
Description
A hearty classic that is great for bulk cooking or making for your family. This vegan minestrone soup is flavourful and super easy to make!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 3 stalks of silverbeet (aka chard), stems removed and finely chopped separately. Leaves roughly chopped.
- 1 can / 400g / 14.10 ounces diced tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf
- 7 cups / 1.75 litres vegetable broth* (or boiling water)
- 2 tablespoons dried Italian herb mix* (mine had rosemary, thyme, and oregano)
- ¾ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 can / 425g / 14.99 ounces borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can / 425g / 14.99 ounces kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 cups dried shell pasta*
- ¼ cup / 18g nutritional yeast
- Salt, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot on medium-high heat, add the olive oil, onion, and garlic cooking until they release an aroma and slightly start to brown.
- Add in the celery, carrots, and silverbeet stalks and stir to incorporate. Let this cook for around 5 minutes, with the lid on.
- Once the vegetables have softened, add in the can of tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf, and liquid. Stir well to combine.
- Bring to a boil and reduce to a gentle simmer. At this point, also add in the Italian herbs, fresh parsley, and all the beans. Keep the lid slightly askew to maintain a slow simmer to retain the liquid without reducing it for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, add in the dried pasta and cook for as long as the packet instructions say for the pasta to cook. I like to have it al dente, so I will take a couple of minutes off the cooking time. 5 minutes before you finish, add in the silverbeet leaves and stir in well.
- Once the pasta is cooked, it’s finished. Remove the bay leaf and mix through nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper.
Notes
Vegetable broth: I use this recipe for the vegetable broth or you can use store-bought.
Italian Herbs: You can use a combination of whatever Italian herbs you have on hand, just have the combination equal to two tablespoons. Other options are dried marjoram, sage or basil.
Pasta: Adjust the amount to less if using smaller pasta shapes. Reduce by about ½ a cup.
- Diet: Vegan
Oh, this was so delicious. Just the right amount of spices! And, it was so tasty biting into the pasta (I used fusilli) along with the veggies & beans.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Masa,
Wonderful, versatile recipe! This is on the menu for us tonight. I’ve used baby spinach in the place of silverbeet, and ‘four bean mix’ in the place of borlotti and kidney beans (the cupboard is looking a little more sparse than usual during the lockdown!). Thanks for the inspiration!
Glad you enjoyed it 🙂 You’re welcome!
Versatile, nourishing and tasty!
I love this recipe, especially with the suggested 1/2 tsp. of smoked paprika. I added some green beans too. Easy to put together with whatever pasta, beans and veggies you have!