Creamy Minestrone Soup

This Creamy Minestrone Soup takes everything you love about classic minestrone and makes it even more comforting! Loaded with hearty vegetables, pasta and a creamy broth, this easy soup recipe is hearty enough for dinner all on its own. The only thing we’d recommend is serving it with lots of crusty bread for dunking.

Why We Love Creamy Minestrone Soup

If you’re trying to decide if you should dive into making this minestrone soup recipe or not, let us give you all the reasons why you should. And we’re not just talking about the unbelievable flavor here, but that is definitely a number one reason.

• Absolutely loaded with vegetables: If you’re trying to maximize your daily fiber intake, you can get there pretty fast with just one bowl of this soup. Or if you’re trying to sneak more veggies into your families diet, this is a delicious way to do it.
• One pot meal: Like most soups, this recipe is made all in one pot so there’s not a lot of clean up.
• Inexpensive recipe: Since this soup is mostly made up of vegetables and only one cup of pasta, it’s very inexpensive to make. You’ll get at least six servings from this pot, if not more depending on who your feeding.

How To Make

There’s a little bit of chopping involved in making this minestrone soup but it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. And the rest is just pouring in and simmering!

• Chop and cook the vegetables: Dice up some onion, celery, carrots and zucchini and get them into a pot with olive oil. Cook for 5-7 minutes until the begin to soften.

• Add broth, tomatoes and beans: Add tomato paste to the vegetables and stir to combine. Pour chicken broth (or vegetable broth) along with petite diced tomatoes. Add seasonings and bring to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes, uncovered.

• Add finishing ingredients: Add 1 cup of mafalda pasta (shown here, but you can use any short tube pasta as well) and about two handfuls of baby spinach. Simmer for 10 minutes until the pasta is tender. Finish the soup with cream and grated parmesan cheese.

Variations

This creamy minestrone soup is really a very versatile recipe, you can switch it up in a lot of ways. Our recipe here can be used as a base and then you can swap out what you have on hand, or use different ingredients to your liking.

• Other vegetables to try: Peas, corn, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans or cabbage.
• Instead of pasta: Diced yellow potatoes or sweet potatoes, squash or rutabaga.
• Different beans: Black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans – really any kind of bean you like.
• Add meat: You can also add more protein by stirring in some cooked chicken or by browning sausage or ground beef in the first step.

Do I Have To Add The Cream?

No, you don’t have to use the cream. We love the cozy, creamy texture of this minestrone soup but if you landed here looking for a more classic version, just skip the cream. We love all kinds of version of minestrone soup, one of our favorites is this sausage minestrone soup with hearty kale.

Or if you’re looking to save some calories but still want that creamy finish, a new trick we learned is adding blended cottage cheese. Using cottage cheese keeps the calories down, gives you a creamy, thick texture and also adds tons of protein.

Storing and Reheating

Let the soup cool down and then transfer to an air tight container. This minestrone soup will keep in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, as long as you didn’t add any meat to it. Reheating the soup is as easy as popping into the microwave or reheating on the stove.

Since there’s not a lot of pasta in this recipe, I wouldn’t worry about it soaking up too much of the broth. But you can also cook the pasta separately and then add it to the soup as you reheat it.

Here’s A Few More Of Our Favorite Soup Recipes

• Beefy Tomato Soup
• Chicken Stew Recipe
• Beef Barley Soup
• The Best Broccoli Cheese Soup
• Italian Broccoli Soup

Print