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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.
- 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.
- Add the onions and garlic to the pot and sauté until tender.
- Add beans, vegetables, tomatoes, the cooked bacon, chicken broth and a splash of Worcestershire sauce.
- 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
One of the best things about Italian minestrone soup is that it’s a clean-out-your-fridge kind of soup. Use what you have on hand or what’s in season. A few favorites include:
potatoes
zucchini
spinach
green beans
Minestrone leftovers can be refrigerated for 1 week and reheated either in the microwave or on the stovetop.
You can freeze minestrone soup although the vegetables will tend to soften after freezing and reheating. If you have added pasta to your soup, note that pasta does not freeze well. You may want to freeze the soup without the pasta and then add it after thawing and reheating. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Yes! If you want to make a second bowl, double the ingredients.
Serving Suggestions
You might like to consider serving any of these wonderful single serving side dishes with a bowl of minestrone soup:
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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Recipe
Minestrone Soup For One
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 strips bacon
- ½ cup chopped onions
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
- ½ cup canned red beans , rinsed and drained
- ½ cup canned diced tomatoes
- ¾ cup frozen mixed vegetables
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- ½ cup dried small shaped pasta
Instructions
- Slice the bacon into 1/4-inch pieces and cook in a medium-sized pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally until bacon is crisp. Remove bacon from pot with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel-lined plate.
- Add the chopped onions to the pot and cook 2 minutes until translucent.
- Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 minute longer.
- Stir in the Worcestershire Sauce, the red beans, the diced tomatoes and the mixed vegetables. Stir for 1 minute.
- Add the chicken broth and stir in the cooked bacon.
- Season with salt and pepper and bring to a gentle boil.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the pasta and cook on low heat until pasta is al dente, about 4 minutes.
- Pour into a bowl and enjoy hot.
Notes
- 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.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
This soup is gorgeous! I am a huge fan of minestrone soup, and I am loving how easy this recipe is! I can't wait to try it!
My lunch in one little recipe! I love it!
This looks amazingly delicious! Loving all the flavors! 😀
Love that this can be made for one. I love all these flavors all packed into each bite.
Oh my! I love that this is single serve. This would be great for me for lunch!
I love hearty soup recipes, and the fact that it's a single portion is just perfect!
This sounds wonderful, and I am loving all of your other recipes as well!
Yum! I love minestrone soup! This recipe looks delish! I'm always looking for new soup recipes for the fall and winter!
xo Ashley
I love fall for so many reasons, but one is because it's soup season!! Love this tasty version of minestrone!
This soup sounds so easy to make – no reason not to try it!! Thanks!