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.
If you don’t want the pasta to get too soggy cook it separately and add the desired amount to you bowl. This way you can freeze it and the pasta won’t turn into mush.
My go to minestrone soup recipe. I added some extra chicken broth hanging around my fridge and it’s delicious.
Delicious hearty soup. Made it with chicken broth but otherwise followed the recipe. Will make this again
I made this for supper tonight, 5 star recipe all the way
It was absolutely delicious and full of flavour, we all enjoyed
I am looking forward to having leftovers tomorrow once those flavours marry more
Will make this recipe quite often
10/10! Cooked exactly as written and took the advice and added cooked Italian sausage (when I threw the spinach in). We used a jar of our garden tomatoes and this was AMAZING! Thank you!
Super easy and delicious!
Fantastic recipe! Tastes better than Olive Garden. I made this on a cold snowy midwest weekend with a grilled cheese and it was magica!
Very tasty. I add a Parmesan rind and it adds a ton of flavor.
This was good! I thought it tasted a little tomatoey so I added some calabrian chili paste and that made it the spice I wanted.
My family and I love this soup!! Thx:)
I’m obsessed with this recipe. It turns out great every time and it tastes exactly like Olive Garden. Super flexible too, you can add extra veggies or leave some out as desired. I usually use crushed tomatoes because my kids don’t like tomato chunks. The one thing you have to keep as written is to add no more than a half cup of pasta because otherwise there’s not enough liquid.
I made this delicious soup, although I did add more broth, and would use a whole cup of frozen green beans, and a little less Italian seasoning to let the vegetable’s flavor shine.
Great soup recipe and so easy. Can it be frozen?
I would not freeze this soup, as the pasta will soak up all the liquid and get very soft.
I’ve had the Olive Garden Minestrone soup many times and I liked this recipe just as well. It was hearty and flavorful. I thought I had Italian seasoning but couldn’t find it so I looked up a recipe for it and made my own. This will be a regular in my soup rotation.
Best I’ve EVER made! I love cabbage so I sauteed cabbage with the veggies instead of adding spinach. Even better the next day.
Recipe is excellent. My only change was to split the amount of spinach with kale.
Very good! I had Kale on hand so used that in place of spinach.
Love this recipe for my home grown zucchini. I increased the amount of Italian seasoning and salt. Very tasty.
I’m super picky. Olive Garden minestrone soup is the ONLY soup I will eat. I was skeptical that anything else would come close. I was amazed at how well this recipe resembles OG. I can’t taste the difference. And it was so easy to make. Love it!!
Your taste buds are immaculate
I never write reviews for recipes or anything because it doesn’t come to mind after finishing my meals, but this one I HAD to. This minestrone soup is not only a great copycat but it’s absolutely BETTER than what Olive Garden serves! I found it to be so much more flavorful, got all my ingredients from Walmart. Mostly canned, frozen and fresh veggies. Followed to a tee, and made sure to season with the salt and pepper. Something I experienced with this is it didn’t come out as soupy/watery as olive gardens does, and I absolutely loved it. There was just enough liquid for me to enjoy. Try this y’all!! 🩷🩷