Home › All recipes › Minestrone soup

Minestrone soup

Felix Intelegando Updated All recipes

This minestrone is a quick Italian vegetable soup: potatoes, carrots, broccoli, celery, kidney beans and farfalle in vegetable broth, finished with lemon juice and parmesan. It serves four and takes about 25 minutes.

Bowl of minestrone soup with farfalle pasta, cubes of potato and carrot, broccoli, celery and red kidney beans in a golden broth, topped with grated parmesan and parsley, on a pale wooden table
Jump to recipe

Last updated

Bowl of minestrone soup with farfalle pasta, cubes of potato and carrot, broccoli, celery and red kidney beans in a golden broth, topped with grated parmesan and parsley, on a pale wooden table

Recipe

Minestrone soup

Prep
10 mins
Cook
15 mins
Total
25 mins
Serves
4 servings

Ingredients

Method

  1. First, I ordered all the vegetables. Cut onion and spring onions in smaller pieces and mince the garlics well. I peeled the potatoes and the carrots and cut them into small cubes as well as the broccoli. The leaf celery was also cut into thin slices. The herbs were chopped also.
  2. Then I sauté onion, spring onions and garlic into a little olive oil.
  3. When the onions were ready in the color, I added the potatoes and the broth.
  4. After the potatoes had simmer for 5 minutes under low heat, I added spices, beans and pasta.
  5. Carrots, broccoli and celery were added 5 minutes before the pasta was cooked to perfection – I do not like if these vegetables boil too much.
  6. Finally, the soup was flavored with lemon juice and salt.
  7. The soup is served with grated parmesan and possibly a little more fresh herbs.

Step by step, in pictures

The whole soup is made in one pot. These six drawings follow the card.

  1. Line drawing of a knife on a cutting board with a halved onion, spring onions and garlic cloves, beside potatoes, carrots, broccoli and a bunch of celeryChop the onions, garlic and vegetables.
  2. Line drawing from above of a pan of chopped onion, spring onion and garlic in oil, stirred with a wooden spoonSoften the onions and garlic in olive oil.
  3. Line drawing of broth pouring from a jug into a pot of potato cubesAdd the potatoes and the broth.
  4. Line drawing of two hands tipping kidney beans and bow-tie pasta into a steaming potAdd the beans and the pasta.
  5. Line drawing of vegetable cubes, broccoli florets and celery pieces dropping into a pot of soup with small pastaAdd carrots, broccoli and celery near the end.
  6. Line drawing from above of a bowl of soup with bow-tie pasta, vegetables, herbs and grated cheese, with a halved lemon beside itSeason with lemon and salt, serve with parmesan.

What goes in minestrone soup?

Minestrone is an Italian vegetable soup that usually also contains pasta or rice. There is no fixed ingredient list: the vegetables depend on what is in season, so you can make it from whatever is left in the fridge. What makes it taste Italian is the pasta (or rice), the garlic and parmesan, and often the herbs.

Many minestrone recipes are built on a tomato base. This one is not. It is a clear vegetable-broth soup, and the fresh, slightly sharp note comes from lemon juice stirred in at the end instead.

Which other vegetables can you add?

Peas, corn, tomatoes, peppers and squash all work, as do most fresh vegetables. The exceptions are the ones you would normally eat raw in a salad, such as cucumber and radishes. The herbs can change too, depending on taste and what you have; this version uses sage and parsley.

Which pasta works in minestrone?

Small pasta shapes, such as the farfalle used here. If you only have spaghetti or another long pasta, break it into short pieces before it goes into the soup. Rice works too, but pasta cooks faster, so the soup is on the table sooner.

Common minestrone mistakes

  • Adding every vegetable at once. Potatoes go in with the broth, but carrots, broccoli and celery are added only 5 minutes before the pasta is done, so they keep some bite instead of boiling soft.
  • Putting in long pasta whole. Break spaghetti and similar shapes first, so every spoonful gets a little pasta.
  • Seasoning too early. Lemon juice and salt go in last, once the pasta is cooked, so you can season to taste.

What to serve with minestrone

The soup is filling enough on its own, so bread is optional. If you want some, a coarse bread suits it. For wine, choose a white with good acidity, such as a Sauvignon Blanc, or an Italian Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, which is usually reasonably priced. Serve it cool rather than ice-cold next to the hot soup.

More vegetable soups: carrot soup, asparagus soup and corn soup with potatoes and squash.

More from this kitchen