Minestrone Soup

Classic Minestrone soup with a tomato vegetable broth base and loaded to the max with fresh veggies, beans, and tender pasta. Simmer with some spices and you have a delicious & healthy bowl of soup for dinner.

 If you follow me on Instagram you maybe saw my announcement yesterday! I’m pregnant with baby #4! That is the reason things have been a bit slow here on the blog. Every pregnancy I have had severe morning sickness, to the point where I can’t even look at food, and this pregnancy was no different. So the reason there were no posts on the blog is because I did not cook for about 3 months. I would walk into the kitchen and immediately get sick from all the spice smells; like the garlic and onion. Sounds strange but it was bad. I was living off Zofran, pickles, and cranberry juice!

My poor husband was a trooper and he kept the kids alive and fed 🙂

 Anyways, we just got back from vacation and that meant driving the long ways home. We were crazy and decided to drive from Maryland to Utah and then back again. That meant a lot of stopping at fast food to eat some not so yummy and “real” food. All I wanted when I came back was a huge bowl of fresh vegetables and fruit.

And because we were traveling with 3 kids, every time we asked them where they wanted to eat they would yell out “McDonalds!” I would scream inside a little. I just can’t eat there. Only the fries are tolerable for me. So we usually ended up stopping at two places. Normally I would not do that, but we were right in the middle of like a 3 day road trip so I was willing to pretty much do anything to keep them happy at that point 🙂

That’s where this minestrone soup comes in. What better way to get all those fresh vegetables than in a delicious soup. The base is a vegetable broth + tomato base, tons of fresh veggies, beans, and some pasta. It was just what we needed after a few days of not eating so good. I also love this soup because it makes a ton and those leftovers are perfect for a repeat dinner or for lunch for the next several days.

This minestrone soup is loaded to the max with all kinds of good stuff. Lots of herbs, beans, carrots, zucchini, tomato, onion, and spinach. If you love veggie loaded soups then you also need to try out this vegetable soup too. 

 Next time I make this I probably won’t add the spinach. I loved it, but I’ll be honest and say that when my kids saw the spinach they acted as if I had put dog food in front of them to eat for dinner. It did not go over well 🙂

I hope you enjoy! Thanks for sticking with me and I promise lots of good food is coming!

5 from 1 vote

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Minestrone Soup

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Total Time

50 mins

 

Classic Minestrone soup with a tomato vegetable broth base and loaded to the max with fresh veggies, beans, and tender pasta. Simmer with some spices and you have a delicious & healthy bowl of soup for dinner.

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Servings: 10

Calories: 134 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 white onion finely chopped
• 1 cup carrots sliced thin
• 1 cup celery sliced thin
• 2 zucchini chopped (peeled if desired)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 can (28 oz) petite diced tomatoes do not drain
• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans drained & rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 3 cans (15.75 oz each) vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1-2 teaspoons salt more or less to preference
• 1/2 teaspoons pepper
• 1 cup spinach leaves about 1-2 handfuls
• 1 1/2 cups shell pasta

Instructions

1. Melt butter and olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Let cook for 8-10 minutes until tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the diced tomatoes, beans, tomato sauce, vegetable broth, basil, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. Stir together and let come to a low boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat to medium and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
3. Add spinach and dried pasta shells. Let cook until pasta is done.
4. Taste and add more salt or other spices if wanted.

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