Easy Minestrone Soup Recipe

This Minestrone Soup recipe is a delicious and easy Minestrone soup! You’re going to love serving this vegetable packed, vegan, plant based soup recipe. It’s a perfect Vegetarian Minestrone Soup, too!

I’m not normally a huge soup fan, but this easy vegan Minestrone has changed me.

I’ve been slowly cutting back on eating meat, so this easy and fast recipe is perfect for keeping in the fridge for lunches all week long. I’ve used my favorite vegetables here, and if you see something you don’t love you can swap it out for a favorite of yours! My family loved this recipe too, which let me know that it’s a winner!

JUST TAKE ME TO THE VEGAN MINESTRONE SOUP RECIPE!

I have readers who are at all levels of comfort and who have different levels of experience in the kitchen. I get a lot of questions about recipes–substitutions, freezing and heating, and even swapping out ingredients.

To better serve all readers here at My Crazy Good Life® I’ve made a commitment to put a ton of information in my posts for my readers.

If you’d like to skip over that information, please simply scroll to the bottom of the page, where you will find the easy printable EASY VEGAN MINESTRONE SOUP RECIPE

Ingredients in this Minestrone, and why they’re amazing for you:

• red onion: a natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
• celery: a great source of fiber
• carrots: a filling root vegetable that is filled with nutrients
• zucchini: great source of minerals–calcium, iron, and potassium
• spinach: iron and nitrates on fleek! I know this isn’t a favorite of everyone, so leave it out if you’d rather.
• whole wheat pasta: whole grains give you slow burning energy and fiber
• canned kidney beans: protein and fiber
• canned white beans (I used cannellini beans)
• diced tomatoes: tons of antioxidants and potassium
• low sodium vegetable broth: warming and packed full of veggies
• Delicious Italian seasonings such as parsley, garlic, basil, and sage

This is a very easy recipe to swap ingredients into and out of. Here are a few tips for doing that: 

• If you’re adding a lot of veggies, you’ll want to add some extra broth.
• If you’re adding more pasta, you’ll want to add more broth because the pasta will soak it up.
• If you’re adding more pasta, you’ll want to add more spices. The pasta tends to dilute the seasonings a bit, I think.
• Cut the heartier and more dense veggies into smaller chunks, and cut the less dense veggies into larger chunks. They’ll cook more evenly together this way.
• An easy way to reduce the carbs in this recipe is to cut the pasta and beans in half. It’ll still be a delicious soup!
• You can add meat to this soup if you’d like. Minestrone soup typically doesn’t have meat in it, so I didn’t add any. But the fun part about cooking in your own kitchen is that you can add what you like! I’d recommend a delicious Italian turkey sausage :)

Other items commonly used in Minestrone soup that you might want to add:

• green beans
• great northern beans
• parmesan cheese

Why is this a vegan soup?

This is a plant-based soup, meaning it has no animal products in it. I’ve been reducing the amount of animal products I consume and found myself relying a lot of this soup because it’s so simple and delicious.

Vegan means no animal products–beef, chicken, fish, eggs, and even honey are items that vegans do not eat.

Using any animal products in this recipe (chicken broth, beef broth, eggs, honey, etc) will make it not a vegan recipe anymore, so if you are feeding someone who is vegan I’d keep the recipe as is.

How to make Vegan Minestrone in the Pressure Cooker:

1. Dice onions, celery, carrots, and zucchini. You can dice up your spinach, if you like.

2. Turn your pressure cooker to sauté, spray the bottom of the pot, and add all vegetables except spinach.

3. After a few minutes of sautéing, add your spices  except bay leaves to the pot. You’re looking for your spices to get into the vegetables, not for the vegetables to be fully cooked.

4. After your spices and veggies begin to smell amazing, turn the pot off and add pasta, bay leaves, beans, diced tomatoes, and vegetable broth. Note: you’re going to remove the bay leaves after the soup has cooked and before you eat it.

5. Close the lid and set valve to sealing. Set your pressure cooker for 4 minutes and hit start, if needed.

6. After the timer goes off and your soup is cooked, carefully open the sealing vent and allow the pressure to release.

7. Open the lid and add the spinach. Stir the soup and close the lid again for 2-3 minutes.

8. Open the lid and stir your soup. Find the bay leaves and pull them out. Add salt and pepper if you’d like. Enjoy!

If using pasta other than whole wheat, cook for 1/2 of the time on pasta package.

How to make this soup on the stove:

1. Dice up your onions, celery, carrots, and zucchini. You can dice up your spinach if you like.

2. Turn your stovetop to medium-high and spray the bottom of a large pot (or add and heat olive oil) that you’re going to cook soup in. It should be big enough to hold vegetables plus 64 ounces of broth. Sauté all vegetables except spinach.

3. After a few minutes of sautéing, add your spices (except bay leaves) to the pot.

4. After your spices start to smell amazing add pasta, beans, bay leaves, diced tomatoes, and vegetable broth. Remove the bay leaves when soup is cooked.

5. Once your pot begins to simmer (bring to a boil, just a little bit), allow your soup to cook until your pasta is done. Take your queue from the package directions, but it’ll be about 10 minutes.

6. Add spinach to your pot and stir it into the soup. Allow to sit and wilt for a few minutes, then serve.

Special Diet Information:

Serving size is 1.5 cups

Weight Watchers: 2 Blue Plan Points | 2 Green Plan Points | 1 Purple Plan point per serving, as calculated on the WW website. The points are coming from pasta and beans. To make a zero point vegetable soup, remove the pasta and beans.

21 Day Fix: 1.5 green containers, 1 yellow container per serving. To reduce yellow to 1/2 yellow per serving, reduce pasta to 1/2 cup uncooked and 1/2 cup total of beans.

Trim Healthy Mama: This is a great E recipe when substituting brown rice pasta for the wheat pasta. In the pressure cooker, cook the soup for 1/2 the amount of time on your package of pasta. Also, use minimal oil when sautéing :)

Looking for more recipes like this Vegan Minestrone Soup?

I have a ton of vegetarian recipes that are easily made vegan here. Here are some of my favorite Vegan recipes on My Crazy Good Life:

• Vegetable Chowder (use vegetable broth and don’t add the dairy–I actually prefer it this way!)
• Gazpacho Soup This is a chilled soup that is delicious in the summer!
• Pad Thai A seriously delicious and easy pressure cooker recipe.
• Portobello Mushroom Fajitas So easy to add your favorite veggies to this!
• Cauliflower Steaks with Chimichurri Impress your guests with this recipe!
• Cauliflower Stuffing I love eating this with regular holiday stuffing–not in place of it :)