Easy Vegan Minestrone Soup (Gluten-free)

To make vegan minestrone soup all you need is a mix of vegetables, legumes, and egg-free pasta cooked in a rich mix of tomato sauce and vegetable broth and you have delicious Italian comfort food.

Do you know anyone who doesn’t love Italian food? Me neither. We have already shared some of our favorite Italian comfort food recipes like this vegan spaghetti bolognese, this quick vegan mushroom risotto, our favorite vegan lentil lasagna, and this 15-minute vegan alfredo sauce.

Is minestrone soup vegan? 

There is no set recipe for minestrone, so you can expect several variations even within Italy. However, what they all have in common is that it is a thick tomato- and veggie broth-based soup loaded with seasonal vegetables, beans, and pasta. Naturally, it is seasoned with Italian spices like oregano and basil. 

But is it vegan? There are two ingredients which you need to pay attention to. The first one is pasta since it often contains eggs. The second one is the broth as certain recipes may use meat stock even if it is a classic vegetable soup.

Ingredients

Lots of veggies and legumes of course! I think the more vegetables you add, the more delicious the soup will be.

This is also the vegan soup recipe we make if we would like to empty our fridge. It is the perfect recipe to use whatever you can find in your pantry in one go. The more colorful it is, the better. 

Our favorite ingredients to add to this delicious vegan minestrone soup: 

• Onion
• Garlic
• Potato
• Carrot
• Parsnip
• Celery – my daughter calls this soup “Letter C Soup” as the sliced celery stalks look like the letter C
• Canned chopped tomatoes
• Tomato paste
• Vegetable broth
• Red kidney beans
• Chickpeas
• Shells pasta or elbow pasta
• Italian seasoning

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.

What other veggies can you add?

• Traditionally, it was a frugal, peasant dish, so potato, carrot, and celery are the usual ingredients.
• However, we also tested this recipe with veggies like mushrooms, other root vegetables (like turnip, kohlrabi, rutabaga, or celeriac), and spinach.
• You can also add zucchini, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kale, or other collard greens as well.
• If you add sweet potato or butternut squash, the soup will turn sweeter as they are high in sugar. So the taste will deviate from the original minestrone flavor. 

What other legumes can you add?

• Whatever legumes you have basically. We made this soup with different beans and they all go great with this vegetable soup base. These are usually cannellini beans aka white kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, or borlotti beans aka cranberry beans.
• Minestrone soup also tastes delicious with green beans as well.
• We have never tried it with lentils though, as this should be a bean and veggie soup. 

What pasta should you use?

• I would say whatever you have. We prefer to use small shells pasta or elbow pasta, but you can use orzo, orecchiette, or even spaghetti (broken into smaller pieces), penne, fusilli, or farfalle. It looks even cuter and more unique with an unusual pasta.
• You can even ditch pasta and add pre-cooked rice, farro (not gluten-free!), or millet. 
• Since pasta is not gluten-free, choose a certified GF pasta brand to make this soup gluten-free as well.

How to make vegan minestrone soup?

We cook this Italian vegetable soup either in our cast-iron Dutch oven or in a regular stockpot. We made it lots of times and will show you below step-by-step how to cook the best vegan minestrone soup every time.

Prepare the ingredients

• Peel and chop onion and garlic.
• Wash, peel, and dice the potato.
• Wash, peel, and slice carrot, and parsnip.
• Wash and chop the celery stalk.
• We used canned red kidney beans and canned chickpeas so nothing to do here.
• Cook the pasta of your choice separately according to package instructions. We don’t recommend cooking them directly in the soup as the starch content will be released into the soup which turns the soup too thick.

Making the soup

1. Heat a stockpot or a Dutch oven to medium heat and add olive oil and chopped onion. Cook them for 1-2 minutes.
2. Add chopped garlic, sliced carrot, parsnip, and celery. Stir and sauté them for 5-6 minutes.
3. Add tomato paste, canned diced tomatoes, and sweet paprika powder. Bring them to boil.
4. Add the seasoning: salt, black pepper, dried herbs (basil, oregano, and thyme), as well as the dried bay leaves. Stir to combine. 

5. Add veggie broth and simmer the soup for 10 minutes over medium heat.
6. Add diced potatoes and cook for another 6-8 minutes.
7. When the potatoes are soft, add canned or cooked beans and chickpeas. Cook them for 5 minutes.
8. Finally, add pre-cooked pasta and fresh parsley. 

Top tips to make it perfectly

• Chop vegetables evenly – We added carrots and root veggies first as they need the most time to be cooked. The next one should be potatoes, as they need less time to be tender. Mushrooms and leafy greens need even less time to be ready.
• Dry vs canned legumes – If you’d like to use dry beans and chickpeas, you should cook them separately and only add them to the soup once soft and ready to eat. 
• Is it hot and spicy? – Well, not really. However, if you prefer a little hotness, you can add a bit of chili powder or red pepper flakes.
• Thickening the soup – It is a hearty soup and usually, it doesn’t need to be thickened with flour or starch.
• Don’t cook pasta in the soup – We recommend cooking any type of pasta separately. What happens if you cook them with the soup? Its starch content will be released and it will make the soup cloudy and thick. Especially gluten-free pasta which is made of corn flour. They can totally spoil the minestrone.

What to serve with it? 

Do you need a garnish at all? It is a one-pot hearty soup, which already has potatoes and pasta. However, it is so satisfying to dunk your bread, cornbread, or even garlic bread into a bowl of soup.

You can also top it with vegan parmesan cheese, nutritional yeast, and even more fresh basil or parsley. After serving you can also drizzle it with a bit of extra virgin olive oil, vegan pesto, or balsamic vinegar. 

If you make too much (which is nearly impossible I think as I can eat it 3 days in a row without a second thought), you can turn it into a completely different soup. I found this list where they show us 6 ways to mix up minestrone. 

FAQs and substitutions

How to store it?

This vegan minestrone soup recipe is perfect for batch cooking. You can easily store it in the fridge for 3-4 days without any problem. 

Can I freeze it? 

Yes, you can. Minestrone keeps really well in the freezer. We recommend freezing them in batches of 1-2 servings. 

This vegan minestrone soup recipe is meat-free, dairy-free, and egg-free. It is also suitable for vegan, vegetarian, nut-free, and soy-free diets. It can also be WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) if you cook the onion and the garlic in water or in veggie broth. It is only gluten-free if you choose gluten-free pasta. The vegetable soup part is gluten-free on its own. 

More vegan soup recipes

You can browse through our vegan soup recipes or our quick & easy vegan meals collection or check out

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UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in May 2020. More tips, FAQs, and serving suggestions were added and it was republished in June 2022.