Hearty, healthy, and delicious slow cooker minestrone soup.
Thick, hearty, delicious, and filling, this Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup is exactly the kind of meal I’d expect my Italian grandmother to serve. (If I were lucky enough to have an Italian grandmother, that is. Unfortunately, Irish grandmothers just aren’t known for the same culinary prowess.)
Unlike many Italian dishes, which are notoriously heavy and high calorie, this Minestrone soup is actually healthy. But don’t worry, packed with hearty ingredients, this soup still feels and tastes like classic Italian comfort food.
Completely vegetarian and bursting with healthy veggies, whole-wheat pasta, and protein-packed beans, this is no “light” soup. Clean and healthy? Definitely. But trust me, this Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup will certainly fill you up.
Minestrone comes from an Italian cognate meaning simply “to serve.” The origins of this thick vegetable soup aren’t entirely clear, but its history is thought to pre-date the Roman empire. With such a hodgepodge of ingredients, historians suggest that, originally, no one really used a recipe to make this soup. Rather, Minestrone soup was more or less the product of leftovers night.
Take all your unused ingredients from the night before and make a hearty, filling soup. And I’m sure even back in the days of the Roman Empire, kids complained about Minestrone night the same way they complain about leftovers today.
These days, however, we enjoy Minestrone soup as more than just a last resort for leftovers. (Although it would still make a good one.) This thick and hearty Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup tastes more like comfort food than leftovers, but it is just as easy to throw together.
I think crock pot meals are ideal for busy weekends. I don’t know about you, but my weekends are typically far from relaxing. Between cleaning, catching up on my workouts, and popping in and out of the house to run errands, the weekend is hardly a time to slow down. That’s why I like to throw together a slow cooker meal in the morning that can cook all day while I’m running around.
This easy Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup is my new wintertime weekend favorite. Warm and hearty, its the perfect healthy cold weather meal.
I also love that this soup is naturally vegetarian. I prefer to eat vegetarian a few nights a week, but it’s often a nonstarter when I’m cooking for guests. So many of us (specifically, men) still have it hardwired that we need to eat meat with every meal. When I serve a meatless dinner, people (again, men) often seem confused and disappointed.
Fortunately, this Minestrone soup is so full of hearty ingredients, no one will ever notice anything is “missing” at all. Meanwhile, protein-packed beans mean nobody is missing out on their protein, either.
Whether you’re trying to use up leftovers or running to the store to pick up all the ingredients, this delicious Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup makes a hearty, healthy, and easy dinner.
If you like this recipe, try our other crock pot soups:
- Potato Leek Soup
- Chicken and Wild Rice soup
- Hearty Veggie and Bean Soup
- Greek Lemon Chicken Soup
- Thai Curry Soup
Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 15 ounces crushed tomatoes can, low-sodium
- 15 ounces diced tomatoes can, low-sodium
- 15 ounces kidney beans can, low-sodium, drained and rinsed
- 1 yellow onion chopped small
- 1 cup celery chopped small
- 1 cup carrot chopped small
- 1 cup green beans fresh, chopped into 1/2 inch to 1 inch pieces
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup whole-wheat elbow macaroni pasta
- 1 zucchini small, chopped into small cubes
- 3 cups kale roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese fat-free, shredded
- 2 tablespoons basil fresh, roughly chopped
Instructions
- In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients except macaroni, zucchini, kale, parmesan, and fresh basil.
- Cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 4 hours. Add the macaroni pasta, zucchini, and kale. Cook for an additional hour on high or until kale is wilted and macaroni is tender.
- Ladle into serving bowls and sprinkle with parmesan. Top with fresh basil. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition Information
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My daughter (48 this year) walked into my kitchen on Thursday, and in a rather shocked voice said,”Is that slow cooker as old as me?”. “Yes!”, I replied. Thanks for another great sounding idea!
Please keep posting.
Glad you love our recipes, Arlene! I hope you and your slow cooker have many more wonderful and delicious years ahead!
Is this 5 points per under Freestyle?
Katie, We are currently in the process of update all of our recipes to include “freestyle” points. Thank you for your patience.
Truly delicious! However, I’d match my Irish grandmother against your Italian grandmother any day of the week! 😉
Glad you love the recipe!
Great recipe,
the pasta on high for 1 hour did not work out so well…
it turned to mush before the zucchini was done.
but it tasted good, Thanks!