Minestrone Soup is the perfect vegetable soup packed full of flavor, eat with Tortellini or alone as a side dish!
You can add as many vegetables as you want or swap some of the ones in this recipe out for ones you like better. Celery, carrots, and zucchini are the classic ingredients!
After you saute the celery, onions, carrot, and garlic make sure you saute the tomato paste thoroughly. Don’t let it burn but do let it cook. It will reduce the sourness that raw tomato paste can have in many soups and sauces.
Once the diced tomato and herbs are added you can add the water.
At this stage you have a few choices. You can either use 4 cups of water with 2 bullion cubes mixed in. You can use either vegetable (to keep the soup vegetarian) or chicken bullion (it adds a lot of flavor), and you can choose regular or low sodium! OR you can use 2 cups of water and 2 cups of broth (vegetarian or chicken, low sodium or regular).
Add the bay leaves as well. And once everything has mixed, you can add the sugar and some salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste. The sugar is used to counter the acidic sourness of the tomatoes in the soup.
Let the soup cook for a bit and then add the zucchini, red kidney beans, and the tortellini. Let cook at a rapid boil so the tortellini can cook. This may take around 8 – 10 minutes.
Add the spinach at the very end so and serve hot!
Add some grated parmesan for some more flavor!
Make sure you remove the bay leaves before servings!
This Minestrone Soup with Tortellini is fully vegetarian!
(depending on which broth or bullion cube you use!)
Minestrone Soup with Tortellini
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Celery, chopped
- ½ Medium Onion, chopped
- 1½ Cup Carrot, chopped
- 3 Cloves Garlic, grated
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
- 1½ tsp Herbs du Provence
- 1 14 oz Can of Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
- 4 Cups Water
- 2 Cubes Bullion (veg or chicken, low sodium)
- ½ tsp Sugar
- 2-3 Bay Leaves
- Salt, Black Pepper, Crushed Red Bell Pepper, to taste
- 1 Cup Zucchini, chopped
- 1 Cup Red Kidney Beans
- 1 Cup Tortellini
- 2 Cups Baby Spinach, roughly chopped, stems removed
Instructions
- Heat up some oil in a pot and saute the onion, garlic, celery, and carrots.
- Add the tomato paste and saute it.
- Add the canned fire roasted diced tomatoes and the herb du provence.
- Dilute the two bullion cubes in 4 cups of warm water. (You can use 2 cups of low sodium broth with 2 cups of water instead) Add the water to the pot.
- Add the sugar, bay leaves. Stir and add salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste.
- Add the zucchini, red beans, and tortellini and cook for about ten minutes.
- Add the spinach and a half cup of water if you want your soup to be thicker.
- Remove from heat once your tortellini is cooked!
