Hearty Minestrone Soup
Warm up with a bowl of my favorite Hearty Minestrone Soup! It’s hearty and filled with butternut squash, white beans, spinach, and garlic!
Even here in sunny California it does get cold. At night. Sometimes. For a few hours. Okay, okay, it’s nothing like the freeze that other states experience, but still. It’s cold enough for a big bowl, or two, or three of this Hearty Minestrone Soup! It’s for sure one of my favorite soups. I know that’s saying a lot, because I’ve shared SO MANY soups that I love! But this one really is a favorite.
I love rain. Like, I love it so much.Β And while LA has some of the greatest weather of all time, it certainly doesn’t rain enough for my liking. Β Oh, but when it does, you bet your bottom I’m making this soup. Β It’s hearty, extremely comforting and the perfect meal for jammies and slippers.
Hearty Minestrone Ingredients
This soup is PACKED with flavor. Don’t you love how colorful it is, too? So many good things adding brightness! Check out all the goodness I pack into one bowl:
- Onion
- Carrots
- Celery
- Butternut squash
- Zucchini
- Garlic
- Tomatoes
- White beans
- Spinach
You might be thinking OKAY who has the time to do all that veggie chopping?! You can absolutely buy some of this already chopped, or you can put on some of your favorite music and settle in for a dance-and-dice session. Totally up to you.
Secret Ingredients in Minestrone Soup
My longtime readers are already shouting it at their screens. LEMON! It’s always lemon, isn’t it? A squeeze of lemon at the end brings it to life. For this recipe I have a second secret ingredient to stir in at the end: a spoonful of pesto. Mmm, pesto. Trust me on this.
More Soups
If you’re feeling that winter chill and want something flavorful and warm in your kitchen, try one of my other soup recipes…
- Instant Pot Lemon Chicken Soup
- Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup
- Roasted Cauliflower Garlic Soup
- Butternut Squash Soup
- Lasagna Soup
- Instant Pot Split Pea & Lentil Soup
Hearty Minestrone Soup
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
Description
Warm up with a bowl of my favorite Winter Minestrone Soup! It’s hearty and filled with butternut squash, white beans, spinach, and garlic!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3–4 large carrots, diced (about 2 cups)
- 4 celery stalks, diced (about 2 cups)
- 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced (about 2.5 cups)
- 2 medium zucchini, diced (about 2 cups)
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
- 1 (26 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 6–8 cups chicken stock
- 3.5 teaspoons Salt
- 1 teaspoon Pepper
- 1 (15 ounce) can white beans, rinsed and drained
- 6 ounces fresh baby spinach
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons pesto
Instructions
- In a large pan heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and butternut squash, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for about 8-10 minutes until veggies begin to soften. Add zucchini, garlic and thyme and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, chicken stock, 3 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, and stir to combine. Bring soup to a boil then lower heat to simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
- Add the beans and heat through. Add more stock if needed.
- Just before serving add the spinach and toss with the soup until wilted. Stir in lemon juice, pesto, and more salt to taste.
Notes
Adapted from Ina Garten
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The most delicious soup ever!!! I omitted the beans and added green beans because summertime π
Oh I love that idea!
Just in case I haven’t reviewed this soup yet, I’ll comment how amazing it is! I have made it more than 10 times at this point for different groups and it’s a crowd-pleaser every time. Better than any other minestrone soups I’ve made. Buying pre-cut butternut squash makes the chopping more tolerable, and you typically get enough squash for 2 recipes so I freeze for next time. I also add Rustichella D’Abruzzo Fregola Sarda pasta, which are tiny pasta balls that add more bite to this soup.
I love the idea of adding a little pasta to this soup! I’m gonna try that next time!
This was so straight forward and easy, dare I say a stupid recipe, to make!! Full of flavor. I subbed double concentrated tomato paste for tomatoes and omitted the butternut squash to save for another soup. π Donβt be afraid to add SALT every layer!! Listen to LANEY!
Yay Dani!! I’m SO happy you loved it, thank you so much for leaving a review!
Can you make this soup in the Instant Pot? If so, how much time would you recommend?
Yes! Prob about 5-6 minutes!
Is there an instant pot version of this soup? Looks amazing ?
OMG can I come over for a bowl or maybe two bowls of soup. The pictures are so great. Would love them blown up for my kitchen wall. You are terrific and I love receiving your blog. Keep it up I can well imagine that everyone is loving your copy the words are not only informative but sometimes even funny.