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.
I make this pretty frequently, and we love it! Today, I was inspired, and added a bag of frozen Italian meatballs. AMAZING.
OK, so not “Italian”…..but then again, neither is Olive Garden. LOL
This recipe is delicious. Thank you!
I love this recipe! I have made it numerous times and even my picky husband LOVES this! I always add more garlic, and I use kale instead of spinach (it holds up better for leftovers) but otherwise follow the recipe.
This hits the spot! The flavor is amazing and it’s such a good OG dupe. Highly recommend! I’ve also frozen it in batches and it turns out great defrosted too.
I thought this turned out really well but I actually doubled the amount of vegetable stock, added more salt, and used almost entire small can of tomato paste to single batch recipe. Yummy! 😋
Made this soup today. The recipe is a true copycat recipe of Olive Garden’s minestrone soup. Recipe says prep time 15 minutes. You better allow at least 1 hour for prep time. Other than that, the recipe turned out great. The soup has excellent flavor. I used chicken broth instead of vegetable broth because that’s what I had. I
cut down on the amount of beans, and added a little extra chicken broth, plus added a little tomato juice because the soup turned out very thick, and we like a little more broth. This soup has great flavor. I served it with grated Parmesan cheese on top and a loaf of crusty bread warmed in the oven. Everyone liked it and I plan on making this recipe again.
Made this exactly as written and it was delicious!! I had just eaten at olive garden on the weekend and Id say it is super close to their minestrone soup! ill def make this again
Is this 300 calories for one serving?
Yes, for 1 1/2 cups.
Delicious, thanks! It thickened quickly, so reheated with another cup of broth. Is thickening normal?
It will thicken as it sits because the pasta will absorb some of the broth!
I add the pasta as I am almost ready to serve each bowl. Really stretches the good broth
Great recipe – totally adaptable to what you have on hand. I did not have tomato paste – I added some leftover salsa and jarred tomato sauce (about 1 cup total). I added a rind of Parmigiano Reggiano and a splash of wine – LOL! I also added chopped 1/2 cup kale for more vitamins. Easy, fun, and delicious!
I make this recipe every other week during the cold months so my wife and I have warm, healthy food to eat when we got home from our restaurant jobs. I use no sodium added canned goods and chicken bone broth for some added protein. This is my go to base recipe for minestrone. Also I double the garlic for any recipe I cook. Thank you and much appreciated!
Can you use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth? I can’t wait to try this recipe.
Yes that’s fine!
Delicious and healthy! I just made this exactly as written but used no salt broth and tomatoes, a little more generous with the spices. I never had this at the Olive Garden but am sure this beats it. Thanks for the recipe, will make it again, unlike other recipes I’ve tried on line.
I made this when I had Covid and it was just what the doctor ordered. It was delicious and soul warming, but I think it is better than Olive Garden!😋 Thanks so much for the recipe I for sure will be making this again!
I made the soup using this recipe recently. It was delicious! I’m craving it now.
Thanks for sharing this recipe with us! Never had it before but I want to make this now. Can this be made with frozen veggies too? Have to empty our freezer a little bit. We froze so much from our garden last summer.
XOXO from Salt Lake City
Yes it’s fine to use frozen vegetables!
Is the nutrition information for the entire recipe or per serving?
It’s per 1 1/2 cup serving.
One of my favorite foods ever is the minestrone from Olive Garden. This tastes just like it. Now I can have it all the time, thank you!
great recipe!! takes me way longer time to make it since i make my own vegetable stock. followed it exactly other than my veg stock .. this is definitely an outstanding recipe.
This is excellent. My only modification was parsnip instead of zucchini.