Homemade Minestrone Soup {Slow Cooker}
An easy to make, Minestrone soup recipe that tastes 1000 times better than the Olive Garden’s version! My minestrone soup is loaded with good for you veggies, like spinach and zucchini. It’s also protein packed with red kidney beans and great northern beans. You’ll be full for hours from this healthy, nutritious soup!
How about I throw a bunch of ingredients (say, veggies, beans, and pasta) into a crockpot and call it dinner? This slower cooker minestrone soup is probably going to be the easiest thing you’re ever going to cook. And the best part? You didn’t even need to turn on the stove!
I wonder if it’s even legal for me to call this a minestrone soup recipe? It’s ingredients that get tossed into the slow cooker and a few hours later, they come out in the form of a soup. Don’t you just love lunches and dinners like that? This gal right here is a big fan of those kinda meals.
Minestrone Soup Recipe Video:

So guys, I have news. I ♥ vegetables. And you already knew that. And now you know it even more.
My hope for you with this soup → that you make this on a really chilly and busy October night. It’s absolutely perfect for those days/nights when you have only 3,018,857 things to get done, and the fact that the crockpot is adulting for you and taking on the dinner responsibilities for the evening means you have the 30 minutes you would’ve spent making dinner to do what. ever. you. like.
Real excitement right there. Ideally, that would happen in a big, comfy chair with a good book and a warm blanket. These oh so rare, picture-perfect moments are brought to you by my slow cooker minestrone soup recipe.
Why this is the best minestrone soup recipe:
Shall I dare say my minestrone soup recipe is better than the Olive Garden’s version? Yes, I think I will. Don’t get me wrong; I first fell in love with Minestrone soup at the Olive Garden. It actually set the expectation of what a minestrone should be for me. The canned stuff was absolutely no good at all. And after researching the interweb until there weren’t any more recipes left to research, I decided to develop my own recipe.
So what makes my recipe unique and so much better? Well, I’ve got a secret ingredient. Any guesses? Okay, I’ll give you a hint. It’s in the picture above. And it’s a red blob. No, not the diced tomatoes, the other red blob.
*Shhh* I’m only sharing this with you because we’re friends. Ready for it?
Homemade Sun-dried tomato pesto!
That super concentrated flavor of tomato pesto is exactly what minestrone soup needs. Plus, the basil, parmesan, and pine nuts in the pesto add such a great, full-bodied flavor to the soup.
Also, since we’re sharing secret ingredients and all, toss in a few parmesan rinds into the minestrone soup. For herbs, I used dried oregano, fresh rosemary (because I had fresh on hand, dried is fine too), and a few bay leaves.
TIP: I should mention that this does make quite a batch of soup. So if you’re planning on making this for weekly lunches, I suggest cooking and keeping the pasta separately. Then you can add some to each serving before reheating.
This slower cooker minestrone soup is exactly what you need to warm up on a chilly evening. I served it with a few slices of baguette, toasted and rubbed down with a garlic clove.
We dipped, we dunked, and sipped, slurped soup (say that 3x fast) like it was our job. Garlic bread pairs beautifully with minestrone soup! It was a good evening. 🙂
Homemade Minestrone Soup (Slow Cooker)
An easy to make, a minestrone soup recipe that tastes 1000 times better than the Olive Garden's version! My minestrone soup is loaded with good for you veggies, like spinach and zucchini. It's also protein packed with red kidney beans and great northern beans. You'll be full for hours from this healthy, nutritious soup!

Ingredients
- 2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/4 cup sun-dried tomato pesto (homemade or store-bought)
- 1 parmesan rind
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup carrots, diced
- 1 1/4 cup celery, diced
- 1 1/2 cup white onion, diced
- 4 - 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 sprig rosemary (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
- 2 bay leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 can (15 oz) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (15 oz) great northern beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 1/2 cups zucchini, diced
- 1 1/2 cups tubular (ditalini) pasta
- 1 cup frozen green beans, thawed
- 2 1/2 cups baby spinach, chopped
- Finely shredded Parmesan cheese, for serving (or Romano)
Instructions
- Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato pesto, parmesan rind, vegetable stock, water, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, oregano, rosemary, and bay leaves to a slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook on low heat 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.
- Add in red kidney beans, great northern beans, zucchini, and pasta and cook on high heat for an additional 20- 25 minutes until pasta is tender. Stir in the spinach and green beans and cook for an additional 5 minutes until heated through. Serve warm topped with parmesan cheese and garlic toasts.
*Please note: the nutritional facts calculated are an estimate based on the ingredients i’ve used. If you’d like a more accurate count, please calculate them using the ingredients/brands you’ve used to prepare the recipe. The nutritional info for this minestrone soup is calculated based on 8 servings.*
Well, this was freakin’ amazing! 🙂 I tweaked a little by upping the veggies by about 50% extra and adding an extra can of kidneys since we like a less broth-y soup, increased the spices a tad to go along with them, and just absolutely loved it. In case it helps anyone else, I easily found Classico roasted red pepper pesto right next to their jarred pasta sauce at WalMart of all places!
In fact, here’s the info on the pesto… http://www.classico.com/Products/Sun%20dried%20Tomato%20Pesto
After putting this recipe together, as recipe states (except I substituted potatoes instead of zucchini.) in a crock pot it went on high so it could be ready in 3-4 hours……. And….. 6 hours later my celery, carrots, and potatoes all which were diced, were still not cooked through whatsoever. I immediately transferred it to a large Dutch oven. It is now simmering away, hopefully things will cook through.
Flavors are great, but…. I did not have any success using a crock pot. I’ll make this again using a Dutch oven instead of a crock pot.
It was a wonderful recipe regardless of the cooking set back. Thank you for sharing.
I’m a little unsure why your soup didn’t cook in the slow cooker in the given amount of time. I have not had anyone complain about this before. Perhaps your slow cooker runs cold? Glad to hear you still enjoyed it! 🙂
What type of meat would you recommend adding to this recipe? My hubs is likely to be happier if I add something? Can’t wait to try it!
Linda, you could serve this with grilled or baked chicken breasts on the side or sear cubes of chuck roast in a skillet (with salt and pepper) and add that in with all the other ingredients. I think another reader said they did that. A little unsure about the cooking time as I haven’t tried it this way myself, but it should be around the ball park of whats listed.
I am planning to make your soup for Thanksgiving as the first course. I have 18 guests. Will this recipe provide enough servings. If not can I add to it
Thanks,
MELU
Hi Melu! Hmmmmm. It really depends on the size of the bowls you’ll be using for your first course. This makes about 7 quarts of soup. So if you’re serving small bowls, it could be enough. Or if you want to play it safe, and have a slow cooker that’s large enough, just multiply the ingredient quantities by 1.5 and make 1 ½ batches of it! Hope you all enjoy the soup 🙂
Can this be frozen?
The soup can be frozen, but i’d suggest freezing the batch prior to adding the pasta. When ready to serve, defrost, reheat and then add the pasta and let cook through. 🙂
Yes, Yes, Yes! I made this and it was AMAZING. My husband loved it, too. He’s definitely a meat guy, so I sauteed some Italian sausage for him to slice up on the side and he ended up dumping them in the soup and loved it even more. We also froze half of the recipe and it tasted great weeks later. Thanks for sharing this, it’s become an instant staple in my house 🙂
I’m going to add a ham bone. I usually do but have not tried ur recipe. Will this work?
Susan, if this has worked for you in the past with a similar recipe, please use your best judgement as I have not tested this recipe with a ham bone.
I couldn’t find the tomato pesto, so I just added a bit more tomato paste and some good quality basil pesto. Tastes pretty yummy, and I would not know the difference not having it the other way. Thanks for the recipe, this soup was one of my dad’s favorites. Wish I would have found this before he passed away…
I’m glad you enjoyed the soup Elyse! 🙂
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Hello! Big thanks to you for this recipe. My friends are coming so I am thinking to make this recipe for them. I am sure they like it very much.
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I just made this soup for my entire work place! It was a hit. I just left out the Parmesan to make it vegan friendly 🙂
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I just made this following the recipe exactly and it is delicious and hearty. Thanks so much for sharing it!
The minestrone soup looks and sounds delicious! Your photo and its’ source have been featured on the World Food Guide website: http://worldfood.guide/photo/minestrone_soup_1091/
Hi there,
This recipe sounds amazing. I was just wondering if there was anything I should change if I were to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned ones.
Thanks.
I’ve only ever made this recipe with canned tomatoes so without further recipe testing, i’m not sure that fresh tomatoes are suitable substitute.
I decided to give it a shot and made the recipe with fresh tomatoes. It worked out perfectly! I just diced them up and threw them in at the beginning with everything else, so it was super easy.
This dish was incredibly delicious and popular with the family, so thank you so much for sharing it and warming up a few cold, busy nights I had last week. I live in Australia and the weather is cooling down now, so I’ll definitely be making this again.
Wow! This was simply amazing!! All 6 people in my family loved it, even my 9 yr old who never eats veggies. This recipe was so full of flavor, and so easy. Perfect for summer, when we go to the pool, then come home to a nice dinner.
I am so happy with this soup! Although I am a professional cook, I do not overly enjoy making soups, but this one is timed perfectly, has such good ingredients(I did leave out the northern beans, just used kidney beans), and the flavour from the pesto is nothing short of perfection.It seems funny to be raving about soup this time of year, but we are having unseasonably cool weather, so this soup is so welcome right now! OH YUM!!!!! Thankyou for such a lovely recipe.
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HI, have you ever tried this in a pressure cooker? do you think you would follow the above recipe in the same manner?
I haven’t. But it is on my list of things to try out. Would love to hear how it went if you end up getting to it before I do!
This is excellent soup! I’ve made it three times and this time was the best! The combination of fresh ingredients with the tomato pesto and Parmesan rind and spices is a wonderful! I’m going to freeze containers for easy meals.
That’s great Terri, I’m so glad to hear that it’s become a fave! 🙂
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