What do you add in minestrone soup?
Minestrone Soup is the champion of vegetables soups, and super versatile. It’s the perfect cleaning out your fridge soup. For my recipe the vegetables I use is green beans, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, kale and crushed tomatoes. But you can swap whatever you don’t have (or like) for something else pretty easily. At the bottom of this post I have some substitute suggestions if you have a specific question. Besides vegetables, you’ll cook it with broth, seasonings, and then at the end add pasta (I prefer using elbow noodles), lemon juice and kale. Finally, sprinkle a little bit of Parmesan on top of each bowl! This is perfect Minestrone Soup for me!
How do you make it?
This is a simple, throw mostly everything in your slow cooker, and cook for 6 hours on LOW.
After 6 hours, you’ll add in your cooked pasta, kale, lemon juice and parmesan cheese. Give it a little stir, cook for 15 more minutes and YUM – dinner is ready!
It’s a incredibly simple, delicious meal, perfect for serving on busy weeknights. And even though it’s vegetable heavy, my toddler absolutely gobbles this up, or as she says “this soup is yummy in my tummy” so it’s a bonus win!
Is Minestrone Soup healthy for you?
Absolutely. This dish is a vegetable paradise in a bowl so it’s filled with natural vitamins, and it’s low in calories and fat.
Subsitutions
Want to make this vegetarian? Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.
Prefer spinach instead of kale? That’s fine. Just use spinach instead.
Got zucchini? Chopped zucchini is a great addition to add to this soup.
Diced tomatoes? You can add diced tomatoes instead of crushed tomatoes if you prefer. Use (2) 15 ounce cans.
All about the beans. You can pretty much substitute any type of bean in this recipe, from navy to cannellini to pinto to black to kidney beans and beyond.
Potatoes? I’ve had a few people ask if they can use chopped up potatoes in this soup. You totally can, but I think it becomes pretty hearty when you add the elbow noodles in at the end, so just a heads up. If you are going to add potatoes, I’d limit it to 2 potatoes.
Other pasta? I like using elbows but you can also use penne, ditalini or pastina if you’d like. You can even get wild with some spiral rotini if you’d like!
Meat? If you want to add meat to your minestrone soup, I’d recommend cooking a chicken breast with the soup, and then shredding it up once you add the kale/elbows at the end.
Freezer Instructions
Allow leftovers to cool completely and then put in freezer safe containers – either glass dishes, freezer bags or silicone freezer bags. This can freeze up for 4 months.
What can I serve with Minestrone Soup?
Here’s my favorite bread and roll recipes to serve with soup. Easy Garlic KnotsFlaky BiscuitsFluffy Bread Machine Rolls2 HOUR Crockpot BreadBread Machine Italian BreadPumpkin Dinner RollsEasy Ciabatta Bread I hope you enjoy this Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup! Pin for later:
