This meatless Easy Healthy Minestrone Soup is a hearty Italian soup, full of bold flavors, and chock-full of wholesome ingredients. It can be a meal in itself or served as a side or appetizer. Made with frozen and pantry ingredients, it's economical, quick, and simple to make. This hearty minestrone soup is also Weight Watchers friendly.
This recipe is ideal for meatless Mondays or perfect for a chilly fall or winter evening, although it's popular any time of year when you need a healthy and easy meal. It was adapted from my Mom's minestrone soup and pairs well with my Everything Bagel Cloud Bread Recipe or Open-Faced Tuna Melts (no mayo). It was also the inspiration for my Leftover Ham and Macaroni Soup!
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I tested this recipe a few times before I got the perfect combination of ingredients for the best minestrone soup recipe!
🥘Ingredients needed for Easy Healthy Minestrone Soup
You'll need the following ingredients for this recipe:
🔪Instructions
Add onion, garlic, celery, and canned tomatoes to soup stock and bring to a boil.
Then reduce to simmer (medium-low) and simmer for 15 minutes
Add thyme, oregano, tomato paste, bay leaves, kidney beans, chickpeas, macaroni, frozen spinach, and frozen vegetables
Bring to a boil again then reduce to simmer for another 20 minutes (approximately) or until pasta is al dente (cooked)
Remove bay leaves and discard/compost
Stir in parmesan cheese and sriracha sauce into hot soup.
Hint: I recommend adding sriracha sauce a little at a time until you get the right spiciness and heat for your preference. You may even want to add a little more!
Slow Cooker: You could also make this homemade minestrone soup in a crockpot on low for 4-5 hours. Just add the macaroni in the last hour of cooking.
🍽Equipment
Do you LOVE my heat-resistant silicone trivet/hotpad *affiliate link) in the photo above? What I love most about it is that it's big enough for a really large pot or skillet.
I actually got the High Temp Silicone Kitchen Set (below) (affiliate link) and it's amazing! *All silicone tools are all professional quality, dishwasher safe, and rated to 600°F.
To make this healthy soup, you'll also need a large soup pot or dutch oven, a cutting board and a sharp knife (see recommended equipment photos and links in recipe cared)
📖Variations & Substitutions
- Vegetarian - use vegetable broth instead of beef
- Vegan/Dairy-free - Use a dairy-free/vegan parmesan cheese for vegan minestrone soup
- Macaroni - you can use another small pasta or rice
- Kidney Beans - you could substitute white beans (navy bean, great northern beans, or cannellini beans)
- Spicier - add additional sriracha sauce
- Meat - you could add cooked ground beef, Italian sausage, chicken, or ham
- Vegetables - you could use fresh vegetables instead of frozen mixed vegetables and/or frozen spinach
- Herbs - you can substitute fresh herbs for dried herbs (see how to dehydrate your herbs in the air fryer HERE), but you'll need to increase the amount of fresh herbs you use by at least 1.5.
- Add-ins - green beans
🥗 Side Dishes
This easy minestrone soup recipe goes well with salad, sandwiches, crusty bread or buns, and crackers. Here are a few recipe ideas:
- Garlic bread baguette
- Granny Buns (Dinner Buns)
- Everything Bagel Cloud Bread Recipe (shown below)
- Spinach salad
- Mandarin Orange Salad Recipe
- Open Faced Tuna Melts (no mayo)
- Bread Machine Italian Breadsticks
- Leftover Stuffing Crackers
🌡️Storage
Store this leftover Minestrone soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. This soup freezes well for up to 3 months in a sealed container.
👪 Serving Size
This hearty soup recipe makes 10 servings. However, you can half, double or triple the recipe by clicking on the serving number and selecting the number of servings you'd like. The ingredient quantities will automatically adjust.
🔢WW Points
This Weight Watchers Minestrone soup recipe is 5 WW points on my plan. You can further reduce the points by using lighter pasta and fat-free Parmesan cheese (I use low-fat). Pair it with Everything Bagel Cloud Bread Recipe (it's ZERO (0) points!)
Top tip- which pasta should I use?
Then there’s the question of which pasta to use. Whole wheat pasta is healthy but it takes a long time to cook and personally, I find it a bit too dense. I prefer to use Catelli “smart pasta” because it cooks faster than whole wheat but you still get 4X as much fiber than if you ate white pasta.
Although it’s not quite as healthy as whole wheat, you are still getting that fiber. And if you’re not a fan of whole wheat, it’s a good alternative.
You can read more about healthy pasta HERE. There are also Weight Watchers friendlier versions of pasta you can use instead. Check out this Weight Watchers Pasta Cheat Sheet!
❔ Frequently Asked Questions
This Minestrone soup has 241 calories.
Minestrone broth is generally vegetable broth, chicken broth or beef broth.
If you're looking for an easy and healthy dinner for busy weeknights, you'll love this delicious soup!
And if you're looking for additional healthy and cozy soup recipes, check out my 31 Healthy Fall Soup Recipes!
Comments & Reviews
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🥣Easy Healthy Minestrone Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 cups beef soup broth * or use vegetable for vegetarian
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 28 oz -can of diced tomatoes
- 10 oz -can of red kidney beans
- 19 oz -can of chick peas (garbanzo beans)
- 5 oz - can of tomato paste
- 1 cup frozen mixed veg peas and carrots and corn
- 150 g frozen spinach (½ a 300 g package)
- 1 cup macaroni noodles
- 2 whole bay leaves
- ¾ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 ½ tsp oregano
- 5 tablespoon parmesan cheese
- 2 Tsp minced garlic
- 2 teaspoon sriracha sauce
Garnish (optional)
- additional parmesan cheese
- fresh parsley
Instructions
- Add onion, garlic, celery and canned tomatoes to soup broth and bring to a boil
- Reduce to simmer (med-low) and simmer for 15 minutes
- Add thyme, oregano, bay leaves, tomato paste, kidney beans, chickpeas, macaroni, frozen spinach and frozen vegetables.
- Bring to a boil again then reduce to simmer for another 20- 30 minutes (approximately) or until pasta is al dente (cooked).
- Remove bay leaves and discard.
- Stir in parmesan cheese and sriracha sauce.
Garnish:
- Garnish with additional Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley, if desired.
Terri Gilson
This minestrone soup is a total winner in my kitchen. It's packed with so much flavor, you won't even miss the meat. I love that I can throw it together with stuff I already have in my freezer and pantry. I cook it all the time when it's chilly outside - it's warm, satisfying, and doesn't take much effort. Plus, it's WW friendly, which is always a bonus in my book!