This Olive Garden minestrone soup is loaded with vegetables, beans and pasta in a tomato broth. It’s a copycat of the restaurant version that tastes even better than the original recipe!
Every time I go to Olive Garden I order the soup, salad and breadsticks. I just can’t get enough of their minestrone soup, it’s my favorite! This homemade version is easy to whip up and is a great way to get the family to eat their veggies. Serve your soup with garlic knots for a complete meal.
Every time I go to Olive Garden, I have to get the minestrone soup. It’s filled with tons of great flavors and textures, yet is light enough not to fill me up before the main course arrives. This recipe is an Olive Garden minestrone soup copycat, and I have to say, it’s as good (or better!) than the original.
How do you make Olive Garden Minestrone group?
This recipe calls for a variety of vegetables cooked in a savory broth. Onions, carrots, celery and zucchini are sauteed, then tomatoes, vegetable broth, pasta and beans go into the mix. Let everything simmer and dinner is served!
What vegetables go into minestrone soup?
This soup is loaded with veggies, it contains onion, carrot, celery, zucchini, tomatoes, green beans and spinach. This is the same blend of vegetables that Olive Garden uses, but you can absolutely change up the veggies depending on what’s in season and what you have on hand. Other great vegetable choices are
- Russet potatoes
- Butternut squash
- Sweet potatoes
- Leeks
- Kale
Slow cooker Minestrone Soup
This soup can easily be made in the slow cooker if you’d prefer to go that route. You can add all the ingredients to the slow cooker minus the pasta, spinach and parsley, then let everything simmer for 4-6 hours on low or 2-3 hours on high. Stir in the pasta and spinach and let everything cook for an additional 20-30 minutes, or until pasta is tender. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Tips for Minestrone Soup
- You can use fresh or frozen green beans, whatever you prefer.
- Try to cut all the vegetables the same size so that they cook at the same rate.
- This soup freezes well, although the pasta and vegetables may be a little softer upon thawing and reheating.
- Be sure to drain and rinse your beans before adding them to the soup, you want to get rid of all that extra sodium!
- This soup is hearty enough to serve as a main course, but if you’d like an extra dose of protein, try adding some cooked Italian sausage.
This Olive Garden minestrone soup hits the spot on a cold day, and it’s so easy to make too! Add a sprinkle of parmesan and some warm bread and you’ve for a quick dinner that everyone is sure to love.
More great soup recipes
Olive Garden Minestrone Soup Video
Olive Garden Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3/4 cup onion diced
- 1/2 cup celery sliced
- 1/2 cup carrots peeled, quartered and sliced
- 1 zucchini quartered and sliced
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 15 ounce can small white beans drained and rinsed
- 1 15 ounce can kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup frozen cut green beans
- 1/2 cup small shell pasta
- 2 cups baby spinach leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots and zucchini to the pot.
- Cook until the vegetables are tender, 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the tomatoes, vegetable broth, tomato paste and Italian seasoning to the pot. Bring to a simmer.
- Add the white beans, kidney beans, green beans and pasta to the pot. Simmer for 10-15 minutes or until pasta and vegetables are tender.
- Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the spinach leaves and cook for 2-3 minutes or until wilted.
- Sprinkle the parsley over the soup and serve.
Great recipe! I doubled it and then added more pasta 😫 what a mistake. If anything I should have left the pasta as normal and then tripled the vegetable broth. Will make again now that I know. 😅
I made this soup for lunch today, specifically for my picky eater son, who has always loved Olive Garden’s Minestrone Soup, and he/we absolutely loved it, even more that Olive Garden itself. It made me happy to make him something packed with vegetables and beans that he would actually eat and enjoy. I’ve never made soup before so was a bit intimidated at first, but it was easy and ready in about a half an hour. I wish now that I had made a double batch, but I will surely be making this again soon. Thank you so very much for sharing your talent!
Has anyone substituted italian green beans(flat one like in olive garden’s) for the reg green beans?
That should be fine!
I would love to make this in the instant pot. If I did, how long would I cook it for?
I would estimate 8-10 minutes on manual high pressure but I haven’t tried this myself so I can’t say for sure!
Thank you so much! This was amazing. I used frozen spinach, 1 cup green beans, 1 cup shell pasta, the entire can of tomato paste, and canned Italian zucchini. It took me about an hour to throw it all together, but well worth the time. I’m not a fan of Olive Garden soup, but my husband is, but I love this soup! WE LOVE THIS SOUP!!! This is much better than Olive Garden!
How many servings does this recipe make?
It serves 6
I used chicken broth instead of vegetable, and used the little ring macaroni pasta instead of shells. I also put the green beans in to sauté with the rest of the veggies because we like them soft. Followed everything else exactly. It was wonderful. Comfort food at its best.
Delicious!! I used beef broth because it’s all I had. Don’t use pasta. The beans are enough. I might have underestimated how much there is so I should have used a larger pot. But simple delicious soup. I will
Make this often I’m
Sure of it.
What size Dutch oven? Is a 5 1/2 qt too small or do I need a 7 qt size?
That size should be fine!
What does it mean by 1 15 is that 1 and 1/5 in quantity and for the beans i know it takes hours sometimes to cook white,pinto,kidney beans. Are the beans in this recipe canned or do we have to cook them first separately????
It means 1 can of beans that is 15 ounces in size!
Turned out great! I made a couple of modifications: I used the whole can of tomato paste & doubled the vegetable broth. I’ll definitely make it again!
I made this for dinner today and boy was it a hit! Amazing recipe and definitely a keeper.
Question though – my soup got super thick and I had to water it down a bit. Is it the pasta that’s causing that? Any tips or pointers? I felt the soup was too starchy despite the watering down.
Thanks for an awesome winter dinner for our family 😀
It would be the pasta. You could add more broth, or you could cook the pasta in a separate pot and then stir the cooked pasta into the soup.
I don’t add the pasta I cook it on the side this way the pasta doesn’t blow up.
I like this recipe so much that I’ve made it several times now in the last few months and enjoy it just as much each time. I have my most recent batch in the fridge right now! 🙂 I’m always looking for tasty and vegetable heavy foods, as I have been focused on trying to eat more produce for a while now, as well as trying to watch my intake in general. I notice you have a calorie count of about 300 for a serving, but I don’t see an amount listed. About what would that serving size be?
It’s 1 1/2 cups!
Best recipe ever!!! Better than Olive garden Minestrone soup.
Just made it & it’s great!
A really simple and delicious recipe! Thank you!
The recipe as it is is amazing! I just added all the old vegetables to it from the refrigerator. Nice way to make a meal and clean out the vegetable drawer.
Wonderful! I followed the recipe and the pasta and veggies were delicious!😄
So yummy! I did make changes- but the core recipe is still there. I cut out beans and pasta to make a low calorie vegetable soup. I doubled veggies ( literally measured them doubled) but kept all broth/tomatoes/spices the same. Just a delicious bowl of soup loaded with veggies!! I’ve made it 3 times in a row. Just got ingredients for 4th batch.
Can I freeze all the ingredients together and throw into the crockpot? Has anyone tried that?
I haven’t tried it but I think it could work!
I make it, and then freeze half.