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.
Made this tonight exactly as written and it was absolutely delicious ~ very filling, and stands on its own as a complete dinner for us. It was simple enough that I could start preparing it when I came home from work and still eat at our usual time. This one is a keeper!
Definitely will try
Looks yummy
Thanks
Just commented on the KItchn website about your recipe. (Did you know it was part of a recipe comparison? 🙂 ) I LOVED this recipe. My zucchini was shredded and I added a Parm rind to simmer in the soup, very slight variations to your recipe. Thank you!!
Delicious, low cal & healthy. Perfect for lunch or dinner. I substituted flat Italian green beans for the regular green beans for more authentic flavor & presentation. Also, increased vegetable broth from 4 to 6 cups. This is a go-to winter comfort dish.
Do you cook the small pasta separately then add to liquid/ broth
You add dry pasta to the soup!
This recipe is an inspiration and will be on our regular menu. I had some mushroom stems to use up, so I sautéed them and added. Thanks for posting.
Very good. It seemed to be missing the robust flavors Olive Garden Miestrone, so I added a second can of tomatoes an extra cup of broth doubled the italian seasoning and added 2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes.
Don’t cook this in a slow cooker like I did, the beans didn’t soften. Next time I’ll make it on the stove top.
I made this for the first time yesterday and everyone including my 2 year old loved it. Great recipe!
Excellent. It tastes just like Olive Garden Minestrone soup. I didn’t saute the vegetables, I threw everything except the pasta and spinach in the slow cooker and let it simmer all day. I steamed the spinach seperately and threw it in along with the pasta at the end. Added a teaspoon of red pepper flakes for a little heat.
Thank you for posting this.
Great recipe! The soup was fabulous. I too added two more cups of vegetable broth because it was too thick for me. Perfect for lunches or dinner.
I haven’t made it but l think I’m going 2 add some ground sirloin to it
Absolutely fantastic recipe! Delicious and hearty. It tastes just like olive garden. I think next time I will add a couple extra cups of stock as it was just a tad thicker than I wanted.
This will be a staple soup in my house from now on.
Thank you for posting it.
We made this tonight. It’s so hearty and packed with so much goodness. We made this with lasagna. There was so much love in that pot.
this soup was so quick and easy.
add to that, delicious!!
day two we added a bit of lingusia …
Love this soup
This has become a favorite of mine and everybody loves the dish. We also picked up some seasoning when we traveled to Aruba that really makes the dish stand out.
Badia Complete Seasoning’s. You can get it online from a lot of places and you use with or without the meat in the Minestrone. It really brings out all the flavors.
Great recipe, I cooked my own beans from dry so I used the cooking liquid, yummy!
Excellent soup! The flavour was wonderful and just as I remember from Olive Garden. I did have to add an extra cup of broth towards the end as it thickened too much whilst simmering. My husband ate two bowl full and we still have enough leftover for dinner tomorrow!
Great recipe! Thank you!
This is my second time making the minestrone soup it’s just like Olive Garden my husband loves the soup…… made bread sticks to go with the soup
Today is the perfect day for the soup it’s raining out side
This soup is fantastic. You may want to add additional broth as it is a bit thick. Instead of spinach I added a 10 oz. pack of frozen chopped kale at the end. Thanks for a great tasting , easy and nutricious recipe. I can always count on you for excellent recipes.
The taste of this soup is fantastic! The only thing I didn’t really like was the spinach because mine was slimy (and I only put it in for 2 minutes at the end) and I have texture issues, lol. I think maybe next time I might try kale as a substitute or just leave it out. Also, if you like a brothier soup it may be worth adding an additional cup or so of broth, especially if you don’t serve it right away. I made it earlier in the afternoon and by dinner it had continued to thicken and wasn’t as brothy (but still delicious!). I will definitely be adding this soup to our rotation this fall.