I’m about to garnish this vegetarian minestrone soup with fresh parmesan cheese. You could be doing the same in about 40 minutes! This is a kicked up version of your mundane minestrone soup and it’s so easy to make.
I love easy, hearty recipes and this certainly fills the bill. It’s the perfect thing for a fall or winter meal. The soup has a scrumptious flavor from pepper flakes and smoky paprika.
Ingredients for the Soup
Just the good stuff goes into this soup. Fresh vegetables and a great combination of spices. What takes this over the top though, is a little bit of smoked paprika. You’ll just about forget that this is a vegetarian soup because of the slight amount of smoky flavor.
- Onions
- Carrots
- Celery
- Garlic
- Vegetable broth
- Cannellini beans
- Tomatoes
- Orzo pasta
- Fresh baby spinach
- Salt and black pepper
- Red pepper flakes
- Smoked paprika
- Red wine vinegar
- Parmesan
If you are not a fan of smoked paprika, you can leave that out and use dried dill, oregano, and ground fennel for seasonings. Check out the recipe card notes for the amounts to use in this recipe.
Leftover Soup
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in your refrigerator for 3 days.
Also, you can freeze in an airtight container or a freezer zip-lock bag for up to 4 months.
Reheat in a microwave oven, adding a bit more broth or water if the soup thickens.
I hope that you enjoy this easy vegetarian minestrone soup. Give it a try and let me know what you think by leaving a comment.
Some other soup ideas to make would be fresh vegetable provencal soup, chorizo white bean soup, or homemade tomato bisque.
If you are planning ahead, bake a loaf of your favorite bread. That would be delicious.
Easy Vegetarian Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 3 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika, *see notes
- 4 cups vegetable broth, I used Better than Bouillon vegetable base, 4 tsp. in 4 cups hot water
- 1 15.5 oz. can cannellini beans with liquid
- 1 14.5 oz, can diced tomatoes
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 cup orzo, uncooked
- 3 cups fresh baby spinach, course chopped
- grated parmesan
Instructions
- Place olive oil, onion, carrots, celery and garlic into a dutch oven or stock pot and cook on medium heat 10 minutes until the vegetables are softened.
- Next, add the spices, vegetable broth, beans with their liquid, diced tomatoes and vinegar and bring to a boil.
- Add the orzo and cook 8 or 10 minutes, until the orzo is tender.
- Lower the heat, then add the spinach, and stir in to wilt, 2 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings, (paprika and salt).
- Serve hot with grated parmesan and a nice crusty bread.
Notes
- For a non-vegetarian soup, chop 2 strips of bacon into small pieces and cook this with the olive oil until nicely browned, then add the vegetables to soften. This will add 60 calories per serving to the recipe.
- For a different flavor profile, add 2 teaspoons dried dill weed, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, and 1 teaspoon ground fennel. Omit the smoked paprika.
- Recipe adapted from Valerie Bertinelli of Food Network.
Nutrition
I was never really fond of Minestrone as I was used to Cambells canned soup. So we tried this and thought it was really excellent. We will make sure to keep the recipe so we can have it again many times in the future. It was really good, and I did not even miss any meat in it!!
Thanks Al for the nice comment.
This looks really good, but I may have to add chicken.
Hi Sandi…A little chicken wouldn’t hurt.
All you need to round out this meal is some good bread and a glass of wine. The smoked paprika adds a great layer of flavor to this easy vegetarian recipe. If you don’t have smoked paprika in your spice cabinet, you are missing out on some great meals! The first time I bought it was at TJ Maxx, in the food aisle and while I had never heard of it before, I was hooked at “smoked”. It came in a squarish can and Joe started using it in all kinds of dishes where bacon would taste good. One of the first times he used it was in the coating for pan-fried walleye, but with a couple of vegetarians in the family, we started using it in any recipe where we’d use bacon or ham.
There is sweet smoked paprike and hot smoked paprika, so be sure you know what you’re buying and the level of heat you like in your foods.