One Pot Vegan Minestrone Soup

Making this Vegan Minestrone Soup is the best way to use up leftover vegetables. It’s hearty, delicious, packed with plant-based protein and a great option for busy weeknights. All you need is 30 minutes!

Nothing is better than a quick and easy, one-pot, healthy minestrone soup loaded with all of your favorite vegetables. It’s full of flavor, easy to make gluten-free, and a simple weeknight meal the whole family will love.

Ingredients You’ll Need 

• Aromatics: Onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and red pepper flakes make the foundational flavor base in this soup and are key to simple, yet mighty flavor!
• Vegetables: Our favorite veggies to use are zucchini, fresh green beans, and red bell pepper.
• Broth: Either store-bought or homemade veggie broth will work. You can even use a vegan chicken broth if you’re looking for a more savory flavor.
• Tomatoes: We opted for a can of crushed tomatoes. It adds a thick tomato sauce consistency with a bit of texture. If your crushed tomatoes are salted, you may not need additional salt to taste.
• Beans: Minestrone soup is known for including a variety of beans and is naturally packed with plant-based protein. We like to make our vegan minestrone soup bean heavy and use a combination of cannellini beans, garbanzo beans, and dark red kidney beans. To make things quick and easy, we used drained and rinsed, canned beans, but you can cook your beans from dry ahead of time, if desired.
• Turmeric: Adds color, earthy flavor and a boost of anti-inflammatory health benefits. Perfect for cozy soup season!
• Pasta: We recommend using a short cut pasta such as orchiete pasta, but you can also use macaroni, shells, ditalini, or any pasta of choice.
• Kale: Roughly chopped kale melts into the hearty soup and adds extra nutrition without affecting the final flavor.

Substitutions and Variations

• Fresh vegetable substitutions: Although we love zucchini, green beans, and bell pepper, you can really use any seasonal vegetables you’d like, depending on the time of year. Try adding fresh veggies like yellow squash, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, gold potatoes, or peas.
• Kale substitutions: Any greens will do. Try baby spinach, chopped collard greens, or another variety of kale such as lacinato kale.
• Make it spicier: Replace the crushed tomatoes with fire-roasted tomatoes for a bit of a spicy kick.
• Bean substitutions: Feel free to swap out and add in different types of beans to suit your personal preference or what you have available to you.
• Gluten-free pasta: If you are gluten-free, replace the wheat pasta with your favorite gluten-free pasta. Gluten-free pastas can cook differently than wheat pastas, so we cannot guarantee every gluten-free pasta will work. For best results, we’d recommend using a brown rice pasta.
• Slow cooker or Instant Pot minestrone soup? We have not tested this minestrone soup in a pressure cooker or crock pot and cannot recommend it. Since it all cooks in one pot, it would need additional testing to suit these appliances. If interested in vegan Instant Pot soup recipes, you might enjoy Instant Pot Lentil Noodle Soup or this Instant Pot Pasta e Fagioli.

Equipment Needed

• Large soup pot or dutch oven
• Spatula or wooden spoon

How to Make Vegan Minestrone Soup

1. Sauté the aromatics. In a large pot over medium heat, warm 2 tablespoons of water. Once warmed, add in the onions, celery and carrots and cook for about 3 minutes, or until the onions are fragrant and translucent. If needed, add additional water to prevent burning.
2. Add in remaining vegetables. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for an additional 2 minutes, stirring often. Add the zucchini, green beans, and bell pepper and cook for about 4 minutes. Continue to add splashes of water as needed.
3. Bring to a boil. Add in the vegetable broth, tomatoes, beans, and turmeric. Mix everything together until uniform and bring the soup broth to a boil.
4. Add the pasta. Once the soup broth is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and add in the pasta of choice. Cover and cook for 8-11 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente.
5. Mix in the greens. When the pasta is ready, stir through the chopped kale and let the soup cool for about 5 minutes.
6. Serve. Season the soup with salt and black pepper to taste, then enjoy immediately while warm!

Serving Suggestions 

We love serving this homemade soup served with a sprinkle of Vegan Parmesan Cheese, fresh parsley, additional red pepper flakes to taste, and Vegan Garlic Bread, 4-Ingredient No Knead Bread or our Garlic Herb Dinner Rolls. Truly any delicious, crusty bread to soak up the broth with is delicious!

It’s one of our favorite quick, hearty dinner recipes, but is equally good for lunch leftovers and weekly meal prep.

Storage Instructions

Store leftover soup in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the refrigerator, then reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave until warmed through. The pasta can absorb additional moisture as it sits overnight, so if needed, add additional broth to help thin the soup back out before reheating the next day.

This vegan minestrone soup can be frozen in a freezer-safe container for up to 1 month, but the cooked pasta can become overly mushy upon thawing and reheating. If you’d like to freeze, we’d recommend defrosting the soup completely in the refrigerator (1-2 days) before lightly heating on the stovetop or in the microwave. This should help prevent the pasta from changing texture too much, but it’s not guaranteed.

Tips for Success

• Remove the pot from the heat once the pasta is cooked. If the soup remains on the hot burner, the pasta will continue to cook and become overcooked and mushy. When the minestrone is ready and the pasta is al dente, remove the pot from the heat to help stop the cooking process.
• Add additional vegetable broth, as desired. Depending on how thick or thin you like your vegan minestrone soup broth, you may want to add additional liquid to thin it out again.
• Don’t be afraid to use a variety of vegetables. The best part about this minestrone soup is it’s basically a vegetable soup with added protein. It’s a great opportunity to use up the leftover veggies in the fridge.

More Delicious Vegan Soup Recipes You May Enjoy:

• Healthy Cabbage Soup – another healthy soup perfect for soup season.
• The BEST Vegan Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Panera Copycat – if you loved Panera before you went vegan, you have to try this Broccoli Cheddar Soup!
• One-Pot Red Curry Peanut Noodle Soup (30-Minutes) – an Asian-inspired soup made with a creamy red curry broth and crispy tofu!
• Vegan Broccoli Potato Soup – a creamy spin on our Broccoli Cheddar soup that’s made thick and creamy with potatoes.
• One-Pot Vegetable Noodle Soup – If you’re looking for a vegan chicken noodle soup, you’ll love this one!

Make sure you tag us on Instagram @sweetsimplevegan and @consciouschris and hashtag #sweetsimplevegan if you recreate any of our recipes, we love to see your photos!

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Nutrition facts label provided by Nutri Fox.

Disclaimer: The nutritional information shown is an estimate provided by an online calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional’s advice. This page may contain affiliate links, which simply means that we earn a commission if you purchase through those links, but your price remains the same. Thank you for supporting Sweet Simple Vegan!