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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.
This minestrone soup was one of the very best I have ever tasted. The sun-dried tomato pesto absolutely made this soup truly “over the top”.
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.
Recipe 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)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 (14.5 ounce) cans 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 or pressed
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 sprig rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried
- 2 bay leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 (15-ounce) can red kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1 (15-ounce) great northern beans drained and rinsed
- 1 1/2 cups zucchini diced
- 1 1/2 cups ditalini pasta or other small shapes
- 1 cup frozen green beans thawed
- 2 1/2 cups baby spinach chopped
- Parmesan cheese grated
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.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
My first Minestrone soup, loved this simple yet flavorful recipe. Prepared soup up to pasta the night before and cooked it all day in crockpot. Came home to a house that smelled like my mom’s! Only mistake I made was using to much pasta so the constancy was more like a veggie stew. I just added a bit more both, still relish. Thanks for a great Monday meal!
So so good! Definitely make again.
Can this be prepared on the stove?
You can cook the soup on the stove, I would just use a large dutch oven or any other pot with a thick bottom. Cook the soup exactly as stated but yours will most likely take a maximum of 2 1/2-3 1/2 hours of cooking before adding in the beans. Stir every 30 minutes or so. Make sure to cook it on medium-low to ensure maximum flavor without overcooking the veggies.
Also, sometimes it’s quicker to scroll through the comments just to check if your question has already been answered as it saves you a bunch of time! This particular question had been 🙂
Made this today on a very fall like August day and it was SO good. This is a recipe I’ll revisit again and again.
The canned tomatoes seemed to be drained in your photo. Is that for the best pix? I will be making it in just over a week for a small family gathering. Looking forward to it! I can see how the tomato pesto will add one of those “hmmm?” notes!
Hi Laura! The diced tomatoes aren’t drained in the picture (if you look closely you can see the juices are just pooling under all the other veggies). The pesto certainly does add one of those ‘what is that’ notes — but totally in a good way. I hope everyone enjoys the soup at your gathering! 🙂
Thank you! One less thing to wash. I was thinking I would just drain the tomatoes, add the liquid back in if it seemed correct. I’ve read enough other recipes to know yours was the one which sounds best to me. Congrats on finding a way to make your passion your gig!
This is my first time commenting on anything and I like this recipe so much that I felt compelled to do so! I have made it about four or five times now. Thank you! The only change I made was to substitute the sundried tomato pesto for regular store bought pesto.
This soup is wonderful. I made for my family who are all great cooks and they loved it. I’m about to make my 2nd batch to freeze. Love it!!!!
This is absolutely delicious! Very healthy, too! I will definitely be making this again. Like a previous reviewer, I did not add cooked Ditalini until I was ready to serve it. I never add pasta to soup until I serve it because it expands and absorbs all the liquid.
Yum. Eaten up like crazy by me and the FAM. After tasting the store bought prepared tomato pesto I knew this would be a #Winner. Out of my love for my youngest who has chosen a vegan approach, I skipped the Parma wedge. Out of love of pork sausage I prepared some Johnsonville on the side to add as desired. a question for the host and owner of this site, do you end up making an income from this sort of thing? Advertising and all? I hope to hear back from you.
Glad to hear the soup was enjoyed! To answer your question, yes, this is my full time job 🙂
This is a wonderful recipe! I have made it several times and the only thing I do differently is cook dried beans with some onion and garlic and add them instead of canned beans. The soup is colorful and delicious!
This is a family favorite at our house. That sun-dried tomato pesto makes all the difference. Thanks for such a great recipe, and lovely photos, too!
This was really fantastic. Even better cold for lunch the next day. Nothing like Olive Garden.
Olive Garden sucks.
I’m enjoying a bowl of this wonderful soup as I write. Soup is one of my favorite things to make because it’s so forgiving. I used broccoli instead of zucchini, and I added some turkey Italian sausage that I had removed from the casings and browned before adding it to the soup. I didn’t have the tomato pesto, so I took some oil packed, sun dried tomatoes, added several cloves of garlic, and ground them up in my Nutribullet, and used that in place of the pesto. I think it came close enough, because the soup is delish! I think what makes it such a success is the rich, flavorful broth. And I think you’re right, that tomato pesto is the secret. Also the tomato paste. They give the broth a depth and richness of flavor that comes across in every bite. I plan on using your “flavor bomb” in other recipes that will certainly benefit from the extra punch of flavor. Thanks for the great recipe. I’ll definitely be making this one again!
Yum! This soup sounds amazing. Can’t wait to try this recipe. I will be sharing a link to your recipe in my upcoming post, Easy Healthy Lunch Ideas (on a Budget). I am sure my readers will love your recipe too!
This was very good. Probably the best veggie soup I’ve made in a long time. I added 1/2 pound of steak and extra green beans. Used Better than Broth product (Vegetable) as I did not have any beef broth. Deleted the pasta. It was highly flavorful. Didn’t need to add salt or pepper. Added 1 zucchini and 1 yellow crookneck squash. YUMMMMMM
I totally love Better than Boullion! So many flavors, so little salt! Yum!!
This minestrone soup was one of the very best I have ever tasted. The sun-dried tomato pesto absolutely made this soup truly “over the top”.
Thanks for this great recipe. To make my life easier, I put all ingredients in the crock pot except the ditalini (which I prepared separately) and cooked it on low 8 hrs. (I used fresh green beans; next time I will parboil them beforehand as they were still quite crunchy.) I used kale I had on hand instead of spinach. The vegetables were perfect. With all the beans and kale, I added 2 T. lemon juice. It was a nice addition. Will definitely go into our rotation.
Made this a few months ago and am going to make it again today. It’s really good, i think its the sun dried pesto so don’t leave that out!
Making this for the 2nd time. Really love this recipe! I sub yellow squash along with the zucchini instead of green beans. Today I am leaving out the pasta to make it gluten free. I think you could do almost anything with that PERFECT base! Love it..
A great recipe! Added brown rice shells and more basil. The pesto is an excellent secret ingredient!