This vegan minestrone soup is made with veggies, red beans and chickpeas, all simmered in a flavorful tomato broth with pasta. Top it off with some fresh basil for a scrumptious soup that's both meal-worthy and delicious!
My parents are probably a little confused by this one. I was never that picky of an eater, but minestrone soup was one of my least favorites as a kid. I think the problem was that my family's minestrone soup had ground beef in it. Even back then meat could ruin a good dish for me, and that was certainly the case with minestrone.
Minestrone is an Italian vegetable soup, in case you didn't know, but conventional minestrone soup recipes can include various types of meat, like bacon or beef.
But there are lots of other things to love about minestrone soup. Veggies. Yum. Tangy tomatoey broth. Double yum. Herby garlic flavoring. Mmmmmm. So much good stuff!
These days I have my own vegan minestrone soup recipe, made with only the things I love. It's totally meatless, dairy-free and delicious. It's also one of those awesome meal-worthy soups that's really easy to throw together.
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Small pasta shells. Feel free to substitute your favorite small pasta shape. Orzo and ditalini would both be good options. Use gluten-free pasta if needed.
- Olive oil. Olive oil will give your soup the best flavor, though any high-heat oil will do.
- Onion.
- Celery
- Carrots.
- Garlic.
- Vegetable broth.
- Diced tomatoes. We're using canned diced tomatoes, either packed in juice or sauce — whichever is available is fine!
- Tomato paste.
- Canned beans. We're using canned chickpeas and red kidney beans, though there's lots of beans you could substitute here. Lentils, cannellini beans, and butter beans would all be good options.
- Dried oregano.
- Red pepper flakes. These will add a tiny bit of heat to the soup. You can leave them out for a milder soup.
- Zucchini. You could substitute yellow summer squash if you'd like.
- Baby spinach. Other greens like kale could be used, but will need to be added a bit earlier during cooking since they take a longer.
- Fresh basil.
- Salt and pepper.
- Vegan Parmesan cheese. This is for topping our soup. You use either store-bought or homemade vegan Parmesan.
Variations: Switch up the veggies with your favorites, like green beans, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, keeping in mind that harder veggies need to be added earlier during cooking, and softer veggies later. For a creamy vegan minestrone, add a bit of non dairy-milk or drizzle with some cashew cream when serving. Add some vegan sausage links for protein.
How It's Made
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
- Cook your pasta according to the package directions. I like to try and time it so that's it's done when the soup is ready, but you can simply toss it with some olive oil if it's finished first.
- Heat some olive oil in a large pot and add diced onion, celery, and carrots. Sweat the vegetables for a few minutes, stirring them frequently until they start to soften.
- Add the garlic and cook it with everything for about a minute, until it becomes very fragrant.
- Add the broth, tomatoes, tomato paste, beans, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil.
- Lower the heat and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes, until the carrots have softened up quite a bit.
- Add chopped zucchini to the pot and let it keep simmering.
- Add baby spinach during the last two minutes. Continue cooking the soup just until it wilts.
- Stir in the cooked pasta, remove the pot from heat, then add the basil and season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
Tip: Feel free to thin the soup with additional hot broth or water at this point. Depending on how vigorously it boiled, the existing broth may have reduced by quite a bit.
- Ladle your vegan minestrone soup into bowls and top each with a sprinkle of vegan Parmesan cheese.
- Enjoy!
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover vegan minestrone soup will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. The pasta will absorb liquid as it sits, so you may need to thin it with some broth or water when reheating it.
It also freezes really well and will last in the freezer for about 3 months.
More Vegan Italian Soups
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Vegan Minestrone Soup
This vegan minestrone soup is made with veggies, red beans and chickpeas, all simmered in a flavorful tomato broth with pasta. Top it off with some fresh basil for a scrumptious soup that's both meal-worthy and delicious!
Ingredients
For the Vegan Minestrone Soup
- 1 cup dried small pasta shells (or your favorite small pasta shape)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 medium celery stalks, diced
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 1 (14 ounce/400 gram) can diced tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 (14 ounce/400 gram) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 (14 ounce/400 gram) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
- 1 small zucchini, roughly chopped
- 2 cups baby spinach leaves, lightly packed
- ½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Vegan Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
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Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook it according to the package directions.
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Drain the pasta into a colander. Return it to the pot and toss it with a bit of olive oil.
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While the pasta cooks, coat the bottom of a large pot with the oil and place it over medium heat.
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When the oil is hot, add the onion, celery and carrots. Sweat the vegetables for about 5 minutes, until soft and translucent, stirring frequently.
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Add the garlic and sauté it with the vegetables for about 1 minute, until very fragrant.
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Stir in the broth, tomatoes, tomato paste, chickpeas, kidney beans, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil.
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Lower the heat and allow the mixture to simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the broth thickens up a bit and the carrots are soft. You can add some water if the broth reduces too much. (Note)
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Stir in the zucchini and continue simmering the soup for about 5 minutes more, until the zucchini is soft but not mushy.
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Stir in the spinach and cook the soup for about 2 minutes more, until the spinach has fully wilted.
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Remove the pot from heat and stir in the cooked pasta and basil. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
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Ladle into bowls and serve with vegan Parmesan cheese.
Recipe Notes
Additional hot broth or water can be added at any point if the liquid reduces too much.
I used to love minestrone soup! My parents got it all the time when i was little from the store. I stopped loving minestrone soup when the brand I loved adding putting meat in it. This is going to be the best- I've never made it myself cause I could never work out the detail of adding the pasta. (surely you don't just put it in there with the tomatoes and the potatoes and the green veggies?)
I made this recipe last night. Oh boy, this was yummy! I added dried basil that I grew and harvested myself and also nutritional yeast towards the end of the cooking. It really pumped up the flavor of the soup. Thanks for posting such a yummy recipe.
Awesome! Glad you liked it. :)
This looks like a great quickie method! When I have time, I like to make minestrone with dried beans, and then use a good portion of the bean liquid for the broth (YUM!). This looks like a really good weeknight approach.
Oh, I have to try that! I always tell myself I'm going to start cooking with dried beans, but then I'm always too lazy or just forget to soak them. I'm really curious about the flavor now, so maybe that will motivate me!
The blog makes it clear that you cook the pasta separately and add cooked pasta as a last step. The recipe never actually says this. It just calls for DRIED pasta and then adding the pasta at the end. Otherwise, I am looking forward to trying this.
Thanks for catching that! I just corrected the recipe to specify cooking the pasta before adding it.
Outstanding. Made this soup after buying some from Whole Foods a few days ago. Your recipe is just as good (or better) and for about the same price I can make a pot of it at home and take some to work all week. Thanks!!
Yay! I used to eat Whole Foods minestrone all the time and I was definitely aiming for something similar when I created this. I'm glad you like it!
Hi Alissa,
It looks delicious, pretty, easy and healthy. I will try this soon for my kiddos, What happens if I leave out the basil leaves?
Thank you! The basil just adds flavor, but the soup should still be delicious without it. I hope you and your kiddos enjoy it! :)
Perfect soup making day, rainy, foggy, leaves blowing. Decided to make this recipe and I'm glad I did. It was really good. The addition of tomato paste is genius. Thickens the soup and adds a ton of flavor. Well done Alissa! I will be making this again!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Christine!
Any ideas for a substitute for zucchini? I'm allergic to all the squash family (among others) but recognize the need for something like zucchini in the recipe.
I've used cabbage as a substitute before and it worked well. I think kale or green beans would also be good choices.
This was delicious. I added celery to the stage where you add carrots, and cut the zucchini in half. Husband is a picky eater when it comes to veggies and he had two bowls :)
I used to love minestrone soup! My parents got it all the time when i was little from the store. I stopped loving minestrone soup when the brand I loved adding putting meat in it.
This turned out so good! Next time I would add more veg and a little less beans. I doubled the recipe and am still loving it four days later 😀 Thank you so much for sharing!!!
6oz of tomato paste ? Is that a typo ?
Seems too much , only needs a teaspoon
I've never seen one teaspoon sized cans of tomato paste, so it's definitely not a typo. :) Feel free to use less if you prefer.