This Green Minestrone Soup is a no-tomato version of traditional Italian minestrone, with pesto stirred in at the end for absolutely delicious fresh flavor and a vibrant color. This minestrone features quick-cooking ingredients like zucchini, kale, and green beans, canned chickpeas and cannellini beans, and tiny pasta. It only takes 30 minutes to make!
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When the summer comes to an end and there’s a crispness in the air that indicates autumn is on her way, this is the soup I always make.
It’s packed full of late summer produce – zucchini, green beans, and kale. It’s light and bright, packed with healthy ingredients and all the flavor you’d expect from a proper Mediterranean meal.
Italian Minestrone is so versatile, and there are so many varieties based on seasonal availability of produce. This version doesn’t have tomatoes, and it’s the most gorgeous vibrant color from stirring in pesto at the end. You can make this your own with other green or white veggies – cabbage, potatoes, spinach, cauliflower, and broccoli would all be great here!
Serve drizzled with some olive oil and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, a good hunk of crusty bread, and you’ll be in cozy soup heaven!
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Onion
- Celery
- Garlic
- Zucchini
- Green Beans
- Kale
- Canned chickpeas – feel free to use any canned/cooked white bean instead.
- Canned cannellini beans – feel free to use any canned/cooked white bean instead.
- Tiny pasta – I used fregola, a toasted small round Italian pasta. Acini di pepe, ditalini, pearl couscous, orzo, or other small-medium pasta all work well here!
- Chicken or vegetable broth
- Prepared pesto – I used homemade basil pesto I had in my freezer. You can use store-bought or homemade pesto, and it doesn’t need to be basil pesto! I think arugula pesto would be delicious.
- Olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese
- Lemon wedges – for serving. These are optional, and are a great way to add an acid to the soup if the pesto you are using doesn’t already have lemon in it.
How to make Green Pesto Minestrone Soup
First, sauté celery and onions in olive oil in a large pot until soft. Then add the garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add all the veggies and beans, stir to coat, and pour in the broth.
Bring to a boil, then stir in the pasta. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or so until the pasta is fully cooked. Then, stir in the pesto and add salt and pepper as needed. As an optional final step, I like to go in with a few pulses with my immersion blender, to give the soup a bit more body.
This is a summary of how to make this recipe. Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions, written in traditional recipe format, or Jump to Recipe.
Does minestrone soup freeze well?
My opinion is that as long as you use very tiny pasta, it freezes really well! Larger sized pasta can get mushy and disintegrate when you reheat the soup from frozen.
I find that very small pieces of pasta, such as acini di pepe, orzo, pearl couscous, or fregola reheat just fine after freezing.
So go ahead and freeze this soup!
Tasty Tip
If you have a rind leftover from parmesan cheese, you can add it to the soup to simmer along with everything else! It will add salty, umami flavor. Remove it before eating.
Other versions of Minestrone
Minestrone soup is often made with whatever seasonal produce is available. I like making a winter minestrone with root vegetables and quinoa instead of pasta, and a fall minestrone with butternut squash and rosemary.
Feel free to make this green minestrone soup your own with other green or white vegetables. Potatoes, cauliflower, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, and even peas would be delicious!
Keep in mind different veggies take different times to cook. Potatoes would need a while, so add those before adding other quick cooking veggies. Spinach takes mere seconds to wilt down, so add that at the very end.
Tasty Tip
How much salt you need to add will depend on how much your broth already has in it. Be sure to taste it and season with more salt if needed before serving!
Other Healthy Mediterranean Soup Recipes
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Green Pesto Minestrone Soup
Equipment
- Immersion Blender optional
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 onion diced (about 1 ½ cups)
- 2 stalks celery diced (about 1 cup)
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups diced zucchini from about 2 small or 1 medium zucchini
- 2 cups shredded kale I used Lacinato / Tuscan kale
- 2 cups cut green beans about ½ inch pieces, frozen is fine
- 15 oz. canned chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 15 oz. canned cannellini beans drained and rinsed
- 8 cups chicken stock/broth or vegetable broth
- 1 cup small pasta I like using fregola or acini de pepe (see notes)
- ¼ cup pesto store-bought or homemade
- kosher salt and black pepper to taste
- extra olive oil, parmesan or Romano cheese, and fresh ground black pepper for serving
- lemon wedges for serving, optional
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Instructions
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and sauté the diced 1 onion and diced 2 stalks celery over medium high heat until softened and starting to brown (about 3 minutes).
- Add the minced 2 cloves garlic and stir until fragrant (about 1 minute).
- Add 2 cups diced zucchini, 2 cups shredded kale, 2 cups cut green beans, drained and rinse 15 oz. canned chickpeas, and drained and rinsed 15 oz. canned cannellini beans. Stir, then add the 8 cups chicken stock/broth.
- Bring to a boil, and stir in the 1 cup small pasta. Cover and simmer on low for about 10 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked.
- Turn heat off. Stir in the ¼ cup pesto and season to taste with kosher salt and black pepper (you may need plenty of salt here, or not much at all, depending on how salty the chicken broth you used was).
- Optional: Use an immersion blender to pulse the soup a few times, pureeing some of the ingredients to add body and thickness to the soup.
- Serve, topping each bowl with a drizzle of extra olive oil, parmesan or Romano cheese, and fresh ground black pepper . If you like, you can also squeeze the juice from lemon wedges into each bowl, especially if your pesto does not have any lemon in it.
Notes
- For a vegetarian version, be sure to use vegetable broth instead of chicken. For a vegan version, be sure to use a vegan pesto.
- Fregola is a toasted small circular pasta, similar to acini de pepe or pearl couscous. I usually like using the tiniest pasta in soups because they freeze better than larger shapes. You can use any pasta you want here – ditalini is a common pasta in minestrone.
- For a gluten-free version, use quinoa, rice, or another gluten-free grain in place of the pasta.
- Add a parmesan rind to the soup to simmer along with the other ingredients, if you happen to have one. It will add salty umami flavor to the whole thing. Remove it and discard before serving.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Gill Jeffrey
Green minestrone soup? How wonderful for st Patrick’s day and my vegetarian partner! Making it next weekend. Thank you!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Enjoy!
Nancy
I had a lot of veggies from the Farmers Market that were these ingredients. I did not add beans as I didn’t have any. I think tbe soup is nice and the drizzle of olive oil before serving gives it a silkiness and enhances the flavor. For me, the soup needs some acid so I add a big squeeze of fresh lemon which was a game changer.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Love the idea of adding lemon.
Amanda
Any thoughts on how this would freeze? I love to make soup for lunches through out the week and freeze half the batch to have for a quick lunch later.
Elizabeth Lindemann
I’m all about freezing for quick convenient meals later! Everything about this soup would freeze beautifully EXCEPT for the pasta. It would probably get really mushy and disintegrate into the soup. It would still taste fine, if you aren’t too picky about the texture, but as an alternative, you could use rice or quinoa (like in this winter minestrone soup, which I actually have in my freezer right now!) or simply omit the pasta and double the beans. Hope that helps and hope you like it!
Angela Wiseman
Just made this and all I can say is wow!!! Bravo Liz!!! Will be making this a regular staple in our home!
Elizabeth
Aw yay! So happy you liked it!! Hope you and your beautiful family are doing well :-)
Karen
This is a great recipe to use up your CSA basket!
Elizabeth
Definitely- especially because you can throw whatever the heck you want in it!
Barbara Manning
Yay! At last, a minestrone that does not have tomatoes! I cook for the week every weekend, and alas, it’s Monday! But this is a huge blip on my radar screen and will be prepped as soon as I eat up what’s in the ‘fridge now. Thanks!
Elizabeth
Thanks for your great feedback! I was kind of worried the comments would be more like “um, this isn’t a Minestrone if it doesn’t have tomatoes…” but it’s just so tasty and unique without them! Hope you like it :-)
Sara
Can this be made in the slow cooker?
Elizabeth
Yup! I haven’t tried it but here’s what I’d do. Just add all the ingredients besides the beans, pasta, spinach, and herbs. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for about 3 hours and add beans and pasta; cook for another 30 minutes. Stir in the spinach and herbs right before serving for only about 5 minutes until wilted.