Pureed white beans, diced tomatoes, carrots, celery, onion, courgette, and spinach go into the slow cooker with vegetable stock and fresh herbs. Small pasta cooks separately and goes into each bowl at serving. One batch makes 8 servings, ready in 6 to 8 hours on LOW.

Blending one tin of white beans with a cup of stock before cooking is what gives the broth its body. The pureed beans dissolve into the liquid and thicken the soup from within, without any cream or flour. Leaving the beans whole keeps them intact but the broth stays thin at serving.

Small pasta goes into each bowl at serving, not into the slow cooker. Added to the pot, it absorbs the broth over hours, swelling until the liquid disappears and the pasta turns soft. Cooked separately and kept aside, each bowl gets a portion that holds its texture to the last spoonful.

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup

Recipe by Shili MohamedCourse: SoupsCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: EAsy

Servings

88

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

6

hours 

Calories

190

kcal

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup with pureed white beans, diced tomatoes, courgette, and spinach in a rich vegetable stock. Serves 8, ready in 6 to 8 hours

Ingredients

• Soup

• 2 tsp olive oil

• 80g yellow onion (about ½ cup), diced

• 120g carrots (about 1 cup), diced

• 50g celery (about ½ cup), diced

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 x 400g tin white beans (cannellini or haricot blanc), drained and rinsed

• 950ml reduced sodium vegetable stock

• 1 x 800g tin petite diced tomatoes, with juices

• 1 parmesan rind (optional)

• 1 fresh rosemary sprig

• 2 bay leaves

• 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

• 15g fresh Italian parsley, chopped

• ½ tsp salt, plus black pepper to taste

• 1 medium courgette (about 225g), diced

• 60g fresh spinach, roughly chopped (or defrosted frozen spinach)

• To Serve

• 75g dried small pasta (ditalini or similar short pasta), cooked separately to al dente

• Extra parmesan, grated, to serve (optional)

Directions

• Drain and rinse the beans. Blend half the beans with 240ml of the stock using a hand-held blender or a countertop blender until smooth. Set the pureed beans and the remaining whole beans aside separately.
• Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring regularly, until softened and fragrant. Transfer the vegetables to the slow cooker.
• Add the remaining stock, diced tomatoes, whole beans, pureed bean mixture, parmesan rind, rosemary, bay leaves, basil, parsley, salt, and black pepper to the slow cooker. Stir to combine, place the lid on, and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours.
• Thirty to 40 minutes before serving, stir in the diced courgette and spinach. Replace the lid and cook on LOW for a further 30 minutes, until the courgette is tender.
• Discard the bay leaves, rosemary sprig, and parmesan rind. Cook the pasta separately until al dente, drain, and set aside. Ladle the soup into bowls, spoon a portion of pasta into each, and top with grated parmesan if using.

FAQs

What is the parmesan rind and what can replace it?

Parmesan rind is the hard outer edge of a finished block, and it adds a salty depth to broth without making the soup taste cheesy. Rinds keep in the freezer for months and go straight from frozen into the slow cooker. A small knob of grated parmesan stirred in at the end works if no rind is available.

Can other vegetables be added or swapped in?

Green beans, kale, and diced potato all work in place of or alongside courgette and spinach. Robust vegetables like potato go in at the start; leafy greens and tender courgette go in during the last 30 to 40 minutes only. Adding extra vegetables at once can water down the broth, so increase the stock slightly to compensate.

Can this soup be made ahead and stored?

The soup base keeps in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and deepens in flavour overnight as the herbs continue infusing the broth. Store the pasta separately and cook it fresh each time, since it absorbs the liquid and turns soft in the fridge. The base freezes well for up to 3 months, with pasta cooked fresh from frozen.

What other slow cooker soup uses the same tomato base?

Not every slow cooker soup needs a long ingredient list to deliver a rich result. A slow cooker fresh tomato soup on this site builds a silky, concentrated bowl from a single vegetable and takes under 4 hours. Together the two cover two slow cooker soup nights from the same tomato base with very different results.

What if a heartier, thicker slow cooker soup fits the meal plan?

Minestrone fits well on the same week as a soup that goes in a completely different direction. A slow cooker pumpkin and lentil soup on this site builds a thick, blended bowl with a sweeter, earthier flavour than any tomato-based recipe. Together the two give two slow cooker vegetable soups that take very different turns from the same base.