Vegan Minestrone Soup Recipe
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The very best vegan minestrone soup recipe from scratch. 1-Pot, quick and easy to make on the stovetop, hearty, healthy and 100% plant based. Made without pasta but loaded with clean plant protein from white creamy cannellini beans, spinach, leeks, zucchini and nutty good for you whole ancient grain farro.
Vegan Minestrone Soup
An authentic Tuscan Italian vegetable soup usually made with whatever produce is in season and thickened up with grains, pasta or potatoes. It makes fantastic leftovers and keeps well in the fridge for up to a week.
Homemade soup has to be the most comforting food on the Planet. Throw a bunch of vegetables, grains and legumes into a pot, add your favorite herbs and spices ( oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, basil), simmer away and before you know it you have tasty magic in a bowl. Sign me up for leftovers please!
Farro vs Pasta
- I’m really fond of farro also known as the “ mother of all wheat ” in my pot of minestrone soup. The recipe is always changing depending on the season and what’s in my plant-based pantry , garden and refrigerator at that moment in time.
- If you choose to go for pasta instead of farro, just make sure to go for a whole wheat or a whole food gluten free variety like lentil or chickpeas. Traditionally short shapes like penne, elbow macaroni, ditalini, orzo, fregola and even potato gnocchi are used.
Get creative, don’t be afraid to experiment, that’s what minestrone is all about. Swap the spinach for kale or chard and the zucchini for shredded cabbage or even mushrooms. Lately I’ve been having a blast with dandelion, radish greens and lots of fresh herbs.
Ideally you’ll have some homemade vegetable stock in the fridge, but If you don’t you can use an organic low-sodium store bought variety or even water.
Best Hearty Italian Vegetable Soup:
- Quick & Easy
- Freezes Well
- Tastes even better the next day
- Traditional Tuscan recipe
- Hearty, healthy, gluten-free
- Meatless but Protein-rich
- Whole food plant based recipe!
Traditional Minestrone Ingredients:
how to make vegan minestrone soup
P.S. If you like this recipe you’ll also love this Tuscan white bean and kale soup. If you make it please remember to come back here to rate it, snap a photo and tag us with #VeggieSociety on Instagram.
Best Vegan Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 1 leek - sliced and rinsed well
- 1 carrot - diced
- 5 cloves garlic - minced
- 3/4 cups Farro (organic non-gmo)
- 1 zucchini - diced
- 15 oz canned San Marzano Tomatoes - crushed
- 1 cup cannellini beans - cooked
- 1 cup baby spinach or kale - packed
- 6 cups low sodium vegetable stock (+ more to your liking)
- 1 tbsp veggie stock (or olive oil) (omit all oil for WFPB & Plantricious Diets)
- 2 leaves bay
- 1 sprig sage
- 3 sprigs oregano
- 8 sprigs thyme
- 1 tbsp dry oregano
- 1/4 cup fresh chives + thyme ( for garnish )
- 1 pinch sea salt + more to your taste
- 3-4 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
Instructions
- Rinse and slice the leek in half lengthwise. Slice it across into small pieces and rinse them well in a colander. Alternatively you can add them to a bowl with cold water and all the sand and grit will fall to the bottom. Gently scoop them out and dry well on a tea towel.
- Heat up a medium soup pot on low flame. Add splash of veggies stock (for WFPB & Plantricious compliance), or a lug of olive oil and the sliced leeks with a pinch of sea salt. Give it a good stir and sauté for 5 minutes until they start to wilt.
- Stir in the carrots and cook an additional 5 minutes then add the farro. Toss to coat and toast for a few minutes. Add the dry oregano, bay leaf, thyme, sage and fresh oregano sprigs.
- Pour in the vegetable stock, give everything a good stir and bring to a simmer. Add the nutritional yeast and cook 15 minutes.
- Add the crushed tomatoes to the pot together with the zucchini. Simmer another 15 minutes or until the farro is cooked through but still a little al dente.
- Rinse the cannellini beans if using a canned variety and add them to the minestrone soup. Cook another minute or so until the beans are warmed through.
- Remove from heat and taste. Adjust seasonings with more sea salt then add the fresh spinach or kale. Give it a stir so the spinach will wilt from the steam. If using kale I would cook it an extra couple of minutes as it needs a little extra time to soften.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and serve garnished with the fresh chives and whatever edible flowers you have on hand.
Video
Notes
- To make your soup WFPB Plantricious compliant make sure to saute in veggie broth or water and omit all oil.
- Minestrone soups change from kitchen to kitchen, from garden to garden so feel free to get creative and use ingredients that you have available right now. There is a long list of suggestions and ingredient swaps inside the blog post above.
- If using pasta instead of farro make sure yo cook that separately and add it to the soup before serving.
- This soup gets better with time and stores well in the fridge up to 5 days. It also freezes well in freezer proof lidded containers up to 5 months.
Nutrition
Such a delicicious Soup, will definitely make again now that I have Farro and we just love it. Thinking of other recipes to use it in too, a new favorite. Thank you for the recipe!
Such a perfect soup, the flavors are fantastic and I didn’t even miss the Parmesan cheese I used to add before. The nutritional yeast replaces it perfectly and the leeks just add so much flavor to the whole meal. Truly one of the best soups I’ve ever made and I’m now a huge fan of farro. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us!
Just recently found your site and made the minestrone soup .. I’m on a soup-making binge during these unknown and challenging times. The soup was great .. and guess no 2 recipes will ever be the same as every time I will likely add something different. I’m looking forward to trying many of your recipes….especially the crusty bread to go with the next batch of soup.
Here in Malta we also include some pottoes. Love them.
You sure can add some potatoes too, Minestrone is ever changing making use of seasonal ingredients or whatever needs using up from the fridge/ pantry. Hope you enjoy the recipe! ~ Florentina
Am I missing it? I don’t see where to add the garlic. I love this soup and every time I make it, I almost forget to add the garlic because I dint see it in the steps.
Hey Donna, you can just add the garlic at the same time with the herbs just to make sure it doesn’t burn. Also there’s a video tutorial above the recipe card if you’d like to watch the steam by step soup making process 🙂 ~ Florentina Xo’s