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Vegetable Soup is savory, hearty and filling comfort food. At around 100 calories a bowl, it’s good for you, too! Customize with your favorite vegetables.
Soup season is my favorite season! I get so happy when it’s time the break out recipes for some of our cold weather favorites, like Homemade Chicken Soup, Navy Bean Soup, Crock Pot Roast and Mexican Chicken Casserole.
Table of Contents
Why I Love This Vegetable Soup Recipe
I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite soup recipes to make. It’s a great way to get my family to eat their veggies, because if they’re in soup they will eat them no questions asked. Simple to make and simple to customize with our favorites, vegetable soup is an easy weeknight win.
My son can easily eat 3 bowls of vegetable soup, so I almost always make a double batch. It’s easy to freeze extras and I love eating the leftovers for lunch. I could eat 3 bowls myself and not even feel bad about it.
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- Onions and garlic – for flavor. The variety of onion doesn’t matter.
- Vegetables: Onion, carrots, celery, corn, green beans, zucchini, diced tomatoes. Each of these can be used either fresh, canned or frozen. Canned veggies may only need a minute to warm up and become mushy if cooked longer so just add them at the end.
- Tomato paste
- Dried herbs – Dried basil, dried oregano, bay leaves, dried thyme, fresh minced parsley. I use dried herbs because they are easier to keep on hand in my pantry. But fresh is great if you have it. You would basically just double or triple the amount.
- Chicken broth or Vegetable broth
- Kosher salt and black pepper
How to Make Vegetable Soup
I love that this soup is a complete meal made in just one pot! Here are the easy steps to making a delicious pot of Vegetable Soup:
- Cut vegetables into equal sized pieces. We like to keep the pieces fairly small so you can fit a lot on your spoon. So many different types of vegetables will work for this recipe, – peas, carrots, potatoes, celery, green beans, corn, onions, green beans, mushrooms, tomatoes. You can use fresh if you have them, canned or frozen. I recommend peeling the potatoes and carrots if you use those, but it’s not required.
- Saute tougher veggies in butter or olive oil. Make sure to season with salt and pepper. This will be the main part of your soup, so doing this step adds a ton of flavor. If you want to save calories use olive oil, but butter will add a whole other depth of flavor.
- Toast the spices and seasonings. I do this every time I make soup! Stir in tomato paste, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper and cook for a minute or two. Toasting the spices helps to release their aroma and flavor and will add another level of flavor to your soup. Sometimes I’ll add a little paprika for anothe layer of flavor.
- Add broth and simmer. Add diced tomatoes and chicken broth and bring to a boil. You can use vegetable broth if you want it completely vegetarian, but I like that chicken broth adds some protein and flavor. Turn down the heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes. Stir in minced parsley right at the end.
FAQs
The sky’s the limit (almost) and use can use just about any vegetables that you like to eat. Corn, green beans, peas, celery carrots, tomatoes, beans, onions, zucchini, cabbage, kale…I could keep going! Either buy the veggies you love or use up what you have in your fridge already.
Bitter greens and lettuces won’t work as well in most soup. Kale is sometimes on this list, but you’ll see we love it in my Ground Turkey and Rice Soup with Kale and in my White Bean, Sausage and Kale Soup. I believe that you can create a recipe you love using any veggie you love.
Freezing Vegetable Soup
Leftovers vegetable soup should be store in an airtight container in the refrigerator and will last 4-5 days. Reheat on the stove over medium-low heat.
To freeze, let soup cool for 1-2 hours then pour into freezer bags. These will stay fresh in the freezer for up to 6 months. Make a double batch and freeze half for a quick dinner when you need it.
Vegetable Soup in the Slow Cooker
To make this soup in your crockpot, you can stir everything together in the pot and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-7 hours. If you have time, I recommend first sauteeing the carrots, onions and celery in olive oil or butter for several minutes, then adding the spices, seasonings, garlic and tomato paste and cooking for another couple of minutes before adding everything to the slow cooker.
Variations + Pairs Well With
When serving, I will add fresh cracked black pepper and some fresh grated Parmesan cheese to each bowl. It’s such a cozy, belly-warming meal!
On the side we love some crispy toasted Garlic Bread or One Hour Dinner Rolls and if we need to stretch the meal for a few more people, a garden side salad.
For a heartier soup variation, I will add ground beef or chicken. Our Smoky Vegetable Beef Soup is also a favorite.
More Easy Soup Recipes
- Tortellini Soup with Italian Sausage & Spinach
- Loaded Baked Potato Soup
- Ground Turkey and Rice Soup with Kale
- Bacon and Bean Soup
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1 small onion diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 cup sliced carrots
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 cup frozen or fresh corn
- 1 cup frozen or fresh green beans bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup diced zucchini
- 15 ounce can diced tomatoes with the juices
- 8 cups chicken broth can substitute vegetable broth
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ cup fresh minced parsley
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add diced onion, carrots and celery. Season with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, until veggies begin to soften; 3-4 minutes.
- Add minced garlic, tomato paste, basil, oregano, thyme, bay leaves to the pot and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring often. Then add corn, green beans and zucchini. Continue to cook and stir for about 2 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Pour in undrained tomatoes and chicken or vegetable broth. Turn heat to medium-high and bring soup to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in fresh minced parsley.
- Serve hot, with grated parmesan cheese and some crusty bread for dipping.
Loved it. I diced up a quarter head of cabbage! It was just delicious!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Ruth.
We love this recipe. I use frozen vegetables for most of it. I also added chopped fresh spinach. Great healthy meal.
Love the feedback Mena! Thanks for stopping by.
You don’t have a can weight for the diced tomatoes and you have tomato paste in the directions but not in the ingredient list. I am looking forward to making this soup and hope I can get clarification on the recipe.
Hi Michelle, It’s a 15-ounce can of tomatoes (sometimes sold in 14 ounce cans, either if fine). Tomato paste is in the ingredients list just below the carrots and celery.
Is this soup freezer friendly?
Absolutely! Let it cool, then transfer to a freezer safe container. Thaw in the fridge before heating.
Looking forward to this being a staple! Easy to make and yummy
Great feedback Elizabeth! Thank you for stopping by.
If I double the recipe do I double the broth as well?
Hi Amy, that kind of comes down to personal taste, and whether you like a lot of broth in your soup. If I was going to double all of the veggies I’d double the broth too.
I forgot to mention I did not find the tomato paste in the printed instruction. After watching your video I see it gets added with the veggies. Plus one question: What is the serving size in ounces ? I realize it’s 6 servings but it would be nice to it in ounces. I guess I could weight the complete batch and divide by 6 ! Thanks agin, Dave
Outstanding veggie soup. All I’m changing next time is adding mushrooms. I think they should be sauteed first to remove some of the liquid. Thanks much this is a winner-soup !
Nice! Thanks for stopping by David.
I’ve made this soup many times so good!