Minestrone Soup For One

Easy single serving minestrone soup recipe made with vegetables, bacon, and pasta. The perfect recipe when you are craving a great bowl of hearty soup but don't want the leftovers.

Minestrone soup is an Italian classic. Our version is made with canned red beans, chicken broth, plenty of vegetables, and Parmesan cheese.

If you're a fan of Olive Garden restaurants in the United States, minestrone soup is one of their most popular menu items. It's also one of my favorite soups to make at home.

Why This Recipe Works

• Easy to customize: Minestrone soup, the Italian soup made of mixed vegetables and beans is also a soup that can be made with any number of your favorite vegetables and ingredients. It's kind of like a "clean your pantry out" soup and the recipe itself is very flexible.
• Easy to make: Minestrone is an easy soup to make. It's also hearty enough to be a meal in itself. You really can't mess up a good minestrone soup. I use canned beans and canned tomatoes along with frozen vegetables to keep it simple. Feel free to use same amounts of fresh vegetables and fresh chopped tomatoes instead.
• Tasty: This soup is hearty and incredibly delicious!

RELATED: The Best Soup Recipes For One

Ingredients

See below for ways to use leftover ingredients.

There really isn't a "recipe" for minestrone soup, since it's usually made with whatever vegetables are in season. You can make your soup vegetarian, add meat, or use a meat-based soup broth such as chicken broth.

The ingredients you put in minestrone soup is really up to you. If you don't like beans, leave them out. Want to leave out the pasta? It's perfectly fine to do so. Minestrone is about improvising and using ingredients you love or ones that you have on hand.

Here are the ingredients in my base recipe:

• bacon
• chopped onions
• garlic
• Worcestershire sauce
• canned beans
• diced tomatoes
• mixed vegetables
• chicken broth
• salt & pepper
• small shaped pasta

How To Make This Recipe

See the recipe box below for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.

1. Begin by cooking the chopped bacon in a 2-quart saucepan. After the bacon has crisped, remove the pieces from the pot and set them on a paper towel-lined plate.
2. Add the onions and garlic to the pot and sauté until tender.
3. Add beans, vegetables, tomatoes, the cooked bacon, chicken broth and a splash of Worcestershire sauce.
4. Finally, add the pasta which will cook while the soup continues to heat. I like using Conchiglie pasta and they look like small seashells.

Expert Tips

• To make a vegetarian minestrone soup, use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and omit the bacon.
• Cook the pasta in the soup until it is al dente (meaning it has a little bite to it) because it will continue cooking after you remove it from the stove.
• If you aren't eating the soup right away, cook the pasta separately and add it to the minestrone when you are ready to eat it. Otherwise, the pasta will get mushy.
• Remember to customize your soup with ingredients you already have. From small shaped pastas to beans and vegetables, any will work well here.
• Consider adding a protein to your soup. Make a chicken minestrone using leftover chicken or beef minestrone made with cooked ground beef.
• Use rice instead of pasta. If you choose to use rice, I recommend cooking it separately to ensure it is properly cooked.

Frequently Asked Questions

Serving Suggestions

You might like to consider serving any of these wonderful single serving side dishes with a bowl of minestrone soup:

• Mini Irish Soda Bread
• Spinach and Orzo Salad
• Avocado Salad
• Cornbread
• French Bread

What To Do With Leftover Ingredients

If you have any leftover ingredients from this minestrone soup recipe, you might like to use them in any of these single serving recipes:

• Bacon: Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf, Twice Baked Potato, Stuffed Fish, Cobb Salad
• Canned beans: Vegetable Enchiladas, Chili Baked Potato, Turkey Chili, Red Beans and Rice
• Canned diced tomatoes: Goulash, Chicken Chili, Shrimp Creole, Tomato Sauce
• Mixed vegetables: Fried Rice, Chicken Pot Pie
• Pasta: Italian Pasta Salad, Macaroni and Cheese, Crawfish Pasta, Mediterranean Pasta and Shrimp
• Chicken broth: Chicken and Rice Casserole, Chicken and Dumplings, Risotto, Turkey Cutlets

RELATED: Single Serving Comfort Food Recipes

Other Single Serving Soup Recipes

• Potato Soup
• Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
• Pumpkin Soup
• Broccoli Cheese Soup
• Curried Butternut Squash Soup
• Carrot Soup
• Vegetable Soup
• Black Bean Soup
• Zuppa Toscana
• Clam Chowder
• White Bean Soup
• French Onion Soup
• Creamy Vegetable Soup

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If you’ve tried this small batch of minestrone soup or any recipe on One Dish Kitchen please let me know how you liked it by rating the recipe and telling me about it in the comment section below.

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