How to Make Minestrone Soup
Minestrone soup is the most traditional Italian soup made in households all over Italy. Moreover, most families have their own version, but my absolute favourite is the right mix of fresh vegetables and herbs. Come together in the pot and infuse to create the most mouth-watering broth. Which is the most important part of the Italian vegetable soup. Lastly, add some cracked pepper and a generous serving of pecorino cheese and you’ll warm hearts through every season!
Watch Minestrone Soup video recipe:
MINESTRONE SOUP | How to Make Vegetable Minestrone Soup
Vincenzo’s Top Tips To Make Minestrone Soup
Literally whatever you want it to be
Firstly, Italian vegetable soup can be made up of your choice of vegetables – and often turns out best when made with whatever you have left in the fridge!
Be creative with it!
If you have stock you can also mix this in at this point to add even more flavour to the italian vegetable soup, instead of just plain water.
Minestrone Soup
Equipment
- large pot
- Chopping-board
- Sharp knife
- Tablespoon
- wooden spoon
- Ladle
Ingredients
- 1 Whole onion
- 1-2 Carrots
- 1 Celery stalks
- 1 whole Broccoli
- 1 Zucchini
- ¼ Pumpkin
- ½ Savoy cabbage optional, you can also add rapini, chicory
- ½ Cauliflower
- 4 Ripe tomatoes
- 200 grams Lentils 7.01oz
- 200 grams Mixed beans 7.01oz
- Fresh rosemary
- Fresh parsley
- Pecorino cheese
- Extra virgin olive oil EVOO
- Salt & pepper
- Water
Instructions
- Minestrone soup is a classic, so start with the classic ingredients: carrots, celery and onion.
- Chop the celery stalk, carrot and onion into cubes or small pieces. Hold on to the beautiful celery leaves and chop them up too!
- Place a large pot onto the stove at a medium heat. Once it starts to warm, drizzle between 4-5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into it and leave to heat up.
- When the oil is nice and warm, add the chopped celery, carrot and onion. Stir around, then add a sprig of fresh rosemary.
- This process is called the “soffrito” and it is very important you let this cook through well, as it forms the base of the flavours for your minestrone soup.
- Gently stir the soffrito every now and then to make sure they are moistened with oil and cooking well.
- While the soffrito is cooking, chop up the pumpkin, broccoli and zucchini into small chunks and try and keep the size similar for all the vegetables so they cook evenly and more or less at the same time!
- Once the minestrone soup soffrito has been simmering for at least 10 minutes, add the pumpkin, broccoli and zucchini and stir them through.
- Add just enough water to cover them. Then leave this to cook for 20 minutes with the lid on, again stirring every so often.
- Next, cut up the rest of your vegetables. In this case, savoy cabbage, cauliflower and fresh tomatoes. An alternate option here is to use peeled tomatoes or a jar of Italian passata.
- It’s now time to add lentils, mixed beans, tomatoes, savoy cabbage and cauliflower before once again covering the vegetables with water and leaving this to cook for 15 minutes, with the lid on top – and don’t forget to stir every 5 minutes!
- Add a generous amount of salt and pepper to the minestrone soup and stir through well so all the ingredients are really well flavoured.
- Turn off the stove after 15 minutes (or once your vegetables have softened), then sprinkle a generous amount of pecorino or parmesan cheese on top, chopped parsley and a generous serve of cracked pepper.
- E ora si mangia, Vincenzo’s Plate….Enjoy!
Video
How to serve Italian Vegetable Soup
Using a ladle, scoop out a generous amount of italian vegetable soup into a bowl and sprinkle a small amount of fresh parsley and pepper on top. Furthermore, it is best served with freshly grilled or toasted slices of bread on the side (which taste yummy dunked into the soup!
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I think every family has their own recipe. For example in Egypt we didn’t have broccoli. Egyptian Italian families typically made it with available vegetables including potatoes and zucchini. Very often peas and green beans too. Spices and herbs would differ too. Any way you make it, it is always nourishing and wonderful
This was delicious! Made it as written and wouldn’t change a thing. Bravo!
Great to hear that you enjoyed the recipe and found it delicious! Thank you for sharing your feedback and giving the recipe a try. I hope you continue to enjoy making and trying out new recipes!
Great recipe!
It is truly an honour, have you tried recreating this wonderful dish?
My go to recipe for minestrone. I love the layering of veggies during the process for abundant flavour.
I hope you continue to enjoy minestrone and all of my other recipes. I’m always adding new ones, so be sure to check back often!
Una ricetta fantastica!!! (except I think I must have used big vegetables – I got about 20 portions out of the 1x recipe!!!)
Grazie mille for the kind words! Looks like your minestrone turned into a feast for many, and that’s amore! 😄
This Minestrone is in my regular meal rotation. I prepare it every 2-4 weeks. Sometimes I add vegetable broth to the leftovers to get more liquid. So good! I also add homemade breadcrumbs to mine because I’m mostly vegan. My kids like the pecorino thought.
Ciao! Grazie for making my minestrone a part of your regular meals—it warms my plate! I totally agree, adding in vegetable broth not only helps in getting more liquid but it also improves the flavours of the dish as it emulsifies with the rest of the ingredients. What a hearty treat, I’ll definitely give that a try as well!
i’ve already made the soup like 10 times and I followed the recipe. The only thing I change is sometimes instead of adding regular cabbage I add dinosaur kale or kale. It’s a little bit bitter and it seems to go really well with the soup. I also love it the exact way you make! in fact, I love it so much. It’s like soul food to me. I grew up eating lentil soup and chickpeas and macaroni and I feel like if I only had one thing to eat my whole life I would like to eat this every day. It’s really delicious and good for you and filling. thank you, Vincenzo!
Thank you for your heart warming message, Lydia. It sounds like you’ve truly made this soup your own, and I’m so glad to hear how much you enjoy it! Adding kale for a bit of a twist sounds delicious and perfectly complements the heartiness of the soup. Keep enjoying that delicious soup every day if it makes you happy—that’s what good food is all about!
My wife, who likes Italian cuisine but not particularly minestrone, said she could eat it every day! I followed the recipe but added some vegetable broth.
Thank you Vincenzo!
Ciao Robert! I’m thrilled your wife enjoyed the minestrone, and your addition of vegetable broth sounds like a delicious twist. I hope it becomes a new favorite in your home! Happy cooking!