Minestrone Soup with Spinach and Parmesan (Thick & Hearty)

Minestrone is a hearty Italian soup that's incredibly delicious, nourishing and satisfying. It's a staple in Italian cuisine because you can add all kinds of vegetables to it, making it a versatile soup to make when you have a fridge full of veggies that you don't know what to do with.

This minestrone soup recipe bursts with flavour thanks to the many veggies, homemade vegetable broth, fresh herbs and parmesan cheese added to it.

The vegetables are carrots, celery, onions, cannellini beans, tomatoes, zucchini, and spinach. But the great thing about minestrone is that there is no one set of ingredients that has to go into it. All kinds of different vegetables, fresh or frozen, are interchangeable in the soup and if there's a few ingredients you don't have on hand, don't sweat it.

This minestrone soup recipe also calls for mini elbow noodles but once again, you can substitute any kind of little pasta or even rice into the soup, or you don't need either. Since the soup calls for so many vegetables, its a great clean-out-the-fridge kind of meal. You may have had minestrone before, but making it with your own homemade vegetable stock will increase the flavour tenfold.

Making Vegetable Stock

For many people, stock is something that comes in a cardboard box, in a can, or in the form of tiny bouillon cubes. We don't usually think much of it and are happy to use this stock in whatever way the recipe calls for. But the reality is store-bought stock is often watered-down, bland and packed with sodium.

Thankfully, homemade stock is incredibly easy to make and is infinitely better in both taste and nutrition than what you find in a store. The importance of making your own stock in home cooking cannot be overstated.

Stock is such a foundational ingredient; it's a building block of flavour and structure for a wide variety of other dishes. By making your own vegetable stock, you'll ensure that your soups, sauces, braises, risottos, pastas, and many other meals will be that much more flavourful and nutritious.

Not only is vegetable stock tasty and easy to make, but its also a great way to use up spare vegetables and herbs, saving yourself a lot of food waste. That means that homemade vegetable stock isn't just a great choice for your stomach, but for the environment and your wallet too.

This recipe for stock is more of a guideline as stock making is far from an exact science many different vegetables, herbs, and other flavorings can be added to it. Parsnips, fennel, mushrooms, thyme, bay leaves, parsley stems and chopped tomatoes are all welcome additions to vegetable stock but are all optional. For more on what to add/not add to vegetable stock, read How to Make Vegetable Stock the Right Way.

About this Minestrone Soup Recipe

Minestrone is a hearty Italian soup that is incredibly delicious, nourishing, and satisfying. It consists of vegetables and pasta swimming in a tasty homemade vegetable broth, flavored with fresh herbs and parmesan cheese.

In this recipe, the vegetables are carrots, celery, onions, cannellini beans, tomatoes, zucchini, and spinach. But the great thing about minestrone is that there is no one set of ingredients that has to go into it.

All kinds of different vegetables, fresh or frozen, are interchangeable in the soup and if there's a few ingredients you don't have on hand, don't sweat it. This recipe also calls for mini elbow noodles but once again, you can substitute any kind of little pasta or even rice into the soup.

Since the soup calls for so many vegetables, its a great clean-out-the-fridge kind of meal. You may have had minestrone before, but making it with your own homemade vegetable stock will increase the flavor tenfold.

About Vegetable Stock

For many people, stock is something that comes in a cardboard box, in a can, or in the form of tiny bouillon cubes. We don't usually think much of it and are happy to use this stock in whatever way the recipe calls for. But the reality is store bought stock is often watered-down, bland, and packed with sodium.

Thankfully, homemade stock is incredibly easy to make and is infinitely better in both taste and nutrition than what you might find in a store. The importance of making your own stock in home cooking cannot be overstated.

Stock is such a foundational ingredient; it is a building block of flavor and structure for a wide variety of other dishes. By making your own vegetable stock, you will be ensuring that your soups, sauces, braises, risottos, pastas, and many other meals will be that much more flavorful and nutritious. Not only is vegetable stock tasty and easy to make, but its also a great way to use up spare vegetables and herbs, saving yourself a lot of food waste. That means that homemade vegetable stock isn't just a great choice for your stomach, but for the environment and your wallet too.

This recipe for stock is more of a guideline as stock making is far from an exact science, many different vegetables, herbs, and other flavorings can be added to the stock. Parsnips, fennel, mushrooms, thyme, bay leaves, parsley stems, and chopped tomatoes are all welcome additions to vegetable stock but are all optional.

For more on what to add/not add to vegetable stock read my article 'How to Make Vegetable Stock the Right Way'.