Minestrone Soup combines vegetables with a savory broth, cooked pasta, and Italian sausage. A delicious and hearty soup recipe!
The recipe for Minestrone Soup, aka “kitchen sink soup”, was sent to me from an Iowa Girl Eats reader.
It contains everything except the kitchen sink, aka oodles of vegetables, a savory broth, tender pasta, and spicy Italian sausage. It is delicious, filling, and so comforting!
Start the soup by browning Italian sausage in a soup pot. I love using spicy sausage, but mild/sweet sausage is totally fine too! If there’s a lot of fat that cooks out, drain the sausage then return it to the pot. Next add marinara sauce which adds a ton of flavor with zero effort.
Plus water and a beef bullion cube.
Next add 3 cups of vegetables. You can use any mixture of veggies you like — mushrooms, carrots, celery, etc. I typically use 1 cup each chopped zucchini, frozen corn kernels, and frozen peas.
Top the vegetables with Italian seasoning, dried parsley, salt, and pepper.
Lastly, sprinkle in a bit of grated parmesan cheese then place a lid on top and simmer until the vegetables are tender.
Remove the lid then add 1/2 cup dry pasta and simmer uncovered until the pasta is tender.
Voila! Ultra quick and healthy Minestrone soup that’s bursting with flavor!
The marinara sauce and sausage gave this soup substance, while the veggies keep it light. This is definitely a two-bowl recipe — so good!
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb spicy Italian sausage
- 4 cups water
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 1 beef boullion cube
- 3 cups vegetables, I use 1 cup each chopped zucchini, frozen corn kernels, and frozen peas
- 2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
- 1-1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- pepper
- 1/2 cup pasta, any small cut
Directions
- Brown and crumble sausage in a large soup pot until cooked through. Drain if necessary then return to the pot.
- Add water, marinara sauce, beef bullion, parmesan cheese, and seasonings then turn the heat up to high to bring the liquid to a boil. Cover the pot with a lid then turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
- Add pasta then simmer uncovered until tender. Scoop into bowls then serve with extra grated parmesan cheese if desired.
Notes
- The pasta will soak up some of the liquid as it cools, so you may need to add more water or beef broth when reheating.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
I LOVE minestrone soup. :) Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Our Sundays look like this most weeks: Church at 8:30am, lunch w/ my family around 11:30am, run errands which usually include grocery shopping and any other various things, home to take an afternoon nap (what is it about Sundays…. the ONLY day I enjoy a nap) and then making dinner at home while watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition and Desperate Housewives. :)
Wow, that soup looks fantastic. I can only imagine how comforting it must be for a sunday dinner! Good luck with being diet-soda free, definitely a good decision (one that I keep trying to convince the people around me to make…). My Sunday routine always involves a long morning walk to find a good croissant. :)
Wow, how can you -not- be a sleeper?? Sundays are for sleeping in, IMO. Who doesn’t love a good long sleep?? I am envious of your will power when it comes to getting up at 8am and being productive on a Sunday morning. For me it’s a fight to get out of bed before 9:30. You must be a saint! :)
Thanks so much for the link to the pop article! My husband since I have known him (over 13 years) has drank a 2 liter bottle of diet mt dew every…single…day! I mean yea it’s diet, but apparently that doesn’t matter! So I read the article to him and he is going to get off the sauce! Yeahhhh! :D
Sunday’s—My usual routine is quiet time with the Lord, followed by breakfast and since I’m practicing for a musical drama every Sunday for weeks now until the performance next month, I go to practice for several hours. Hearty Soup sounds good!!! Thanks for the recipe!
LOVE it! i was totally convinced this was a shortcut to a good soup by using spaghetti-o’s when i first looked at the pic (thinking “wtf is she THINKING??”) and was pleasantly surprised when i read through the recipe!
i’m gonna have to remember this recipe next time we make soup :D
I love Sunday routines!! I get up around 7 am, go for my weekly long run of between 9-20 miles depending on what I’m training for, come home to make a bowl of oats, and spend the rest of the day doing grad school reading and writing. I usually spend a little time in the kitchen getting things in order for the week too!
This is definitely a tasty tradition :)
I usually use Sundays in the winter for the same kind of cooking but first I spend 2-3 hours after breakfast on the couch with couch and/or book/computer just being lazy. :)
That soup looks so good! I have never cooked with zucchini but I really like that idea! Did you peel the zucchini first? Do you dispose of the center with the seeds?
Sunday = Church in the morning, coffee house in the afternoon and ‘Soup Sunday’. LOVE SUNDAYS!
Growing up we always had a nice dinner after church, but then all afternoon it was a free for all (since sometimes dinner was not exactly at noon). Since we kind of snacked all afternoon, supper was homemade popcorn on the stove! YUM! I have tried for the past 6 years to implemint this now with my family, but my husband complained that it wasn’t filling enough and we have now switched to soup sundays. How did your new microwave turn out? Our microwave always sparks with carrots.
I love your Sunday routine! I would kill for a day with my boo like this. We rarely have days off together, so when we do it’s always made scrambling to get things done that require both of us, and then some sort of date-like activity.
P.s. I could be slow, and just not seeing it, but you need a plug-in so readers can easily e-mail posts to other people. I mean, I could copy and paste the url in an e-mail, but I’m lazy, and I am sure you have nothing better to do with your time than figure out how to install yet ANOTHER plug-in that you absolutely NEED…. ;-)
Love this post! My boyfriend is the same Sundays. I will eventually yell that I’m going to a favorite coffee shop or the local market, that does the trick ;)