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.*
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Looking very yummy great recipe. wanna try this soup
absolutely fantastic, easy
DELISH
So happy to hear you made it and enjoyed it, Belinda!
I LOVED this recipe! It will definitely be on repeat around here! Thanks!
I love this recipe, & have made it many times! It’s healthy, delicious, & freezes well!
So happy to hear you’ve enjoyed it, Ashley! Appreciate you circling back to leave a review!
Can this recipe be made on the stovetop if you don’t have a slow cooker?
I absolutely love this recipe! I make two crockpots full and freeze half of it in individual portions, just perfect for lunch or after school snacks.
So glad to hear that, Marci! Love the idea of making larger batches and freezing in portions for quick meals/snacks!
I am dying to try this recipe. I live in Florida and it is so hot now, however I’m thinking it would be great for a late weekend evening. A true comfort food.
I have made this recipe several times and I just love it. Why look for another one?
A tremendous recipe. Made some for my partners parents, they absolutely loved it. The flavor is just incredible, so much nicer than any Minestrone I’ve ever had. Thanks so much for sharing it.
Amazing. The only vegetable/minestrone soup I make. And it’s so versatile with whatever you have on hand! Love it!
This recipe is absolutely delicious and for a novice cook like myself, I’ve perfected the ability to cook this beautiful soup.
As a non meat eater, this is perfect to get your nutritional kick from this soup and for the elderly, like my parents, they’re sure to get that nutritional benefits as well.
Also a novice cooker here ! ♀️ I am making this as we speak and am so excited to try. If I’m going to freeze some, do I leave the spinach and noodles out or freeze it all once done?
Hi Courtney! I suggest leaving the spinach and noodles out if freezing! It’ll hold up better that way 🙂
This soup is SO delicious! I started making this a few months into the pandemic and I have made it about 5 times so far. It also freezes very well. I’ve also passed it along to family and friends and it’s always been a hit! Thank you for sharing this.
I’m a lazy cook so I left out a few of the vegetables as well as the parm rind and it was still awesome! I’m actually here because I’m making it a second time :). The only issue I ran into was that my carrots didn’t fully cook in ~3.5 hours on high. So if you’re trying to make it as quickly as possible, I recommend softening those up in the microwave first. Thanks for the great recipe!
Excellent recipe! I just added pesto.
Thanks for the recipie!
I substituted a couple things based on what I had- almond butter for pine nuts and kale for spinach. It turned out great.
I love finding vegan recipes that are accidentally vegan, if you know what I mean? Like it was meant to be this way not changed a bunch to make it vegan. Always so tasty and this is no exception. Thanks!
So if you were going to make this and take it to someone, would you just take dry pasta and fresh spinach…suggesting they cook the pasta then add both as heating? It looks so nutritious and yummy!!
Hi Denise! You could cook and take the pasta in a separate container if you’d like, that way it maintains its shape and texture. The spinach can be added in earlier, it loses a little bit of that bright green color, but still delicious!
Really good ! Made exactly as recipe said, except no parmesan rind, though added cheese on top after. I will definitely make again !
This was easy and great! I’ll definitely make it again.
I left out the pasta and added an extra can of beans–that will help me rationalize serving this delicious soup with homemade bread. The addition of pesto is genius–definitely something I’ll apply to future soup making endeavors. Thanks for the great recipe and inspiration!
I love this recipe so much, it’s always a go to for me. I am making it for a Friendsgiving as a side dish, how many people do you think this would serve as a side? I am wondering if I will need to double it. Thank you!!
I made this a few years back in a crockpot. I know an instant pot’s slow cooking feature works differently than a true slow cooker. I should be able to do this just fine in my IP though, right?
It’s the best minestrone I’ve made, and I need it back in my life!
I hope this is not a silly question, doing this first time. The kidney beans are you using canned or can I use fresh soaked overnight beans? Also pasta, was it cooked separately then you added to slow cooker and summer for 30mins?
I am going to make this next week.
I normally use fresh soaked beans as the canned ones tend to get too mushy after a while. Pasta can be put in raw as well as it will cook with the broth.
The best minestrone soup I have ever had! It is now in our regular rotation of dinners. So easy and so good!
This has become my go to recipe for minestrone. I have made it many times over the years, but this recipe is my favorite of all time!
I made this last night for company and it was very yummy. Used elbow macaroni because that is what I had on hand.
This is one of my favorite recipes. I have made this in the slow cooker and instant pot. My brother and I made an Italian dinner for my Dad’s birthday and they loved this soup. I have also made it for co-workers. I also like to make it for meal prep for lunch for the week.
Why can’t I just put in everything at the beginning of the day on low 6-8 hrs? Rather than the beans and pasta at the end? Thanks for your recipe I want to try.
Adding the macaroni too early will turn them to mush by the end of the 6-8 hours
If I wanted to add cabbage, when would you add it?