Craving Olive Garden’s iconic Minestrone Soup? Now you can enjoy a piping hot bowl at home anytime with this simple copycat recipe! Bursting with fresh vegetables, tender pasta, and a savory tomato broth, it’s a nourishing meal that will satisfy your whole family. Additionally, this recipe yields a large batch, making it ideal for meal-prepping lunches or dinners throughout the week. Let’s dive into what makes this soup so irresistible!
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Olive Garden Minestrone Soup Recipe
Everyone loves minestrone, and this copycat Olive Garden Minestrone Soup recipe is straightforward to make at home – it doesn’t require much effort.
Just let everything simmer away, and dinner is served! Additionally, this is a great soup to satisfy your cravings at any time of the year. A light soup for summer or a steaming hot bowl on a cold day. It doesn’t hurt that this soup is tasty and very colorful!
The flavors smell so wonderful while it’s cooking. If you have kids, you’ll receive a What smells so good? When they rush in from school.
Why try this version of the Olive Garden’s Minestrone Soup?
The key to this copycat Olive Garden Minestrone Soup recipe is building layers of flavor with each step. Sautéing the aromatic veggies creates a solid foundation, while the tomato paste intensifies the broth. Canned and fresh veggies strike the perfect tender-crisp balance, and the blend of beans adds creamy body and pleasant texture contrasts. A scoop of pasta makes each bite satisfying, transforming the soup
Minestrone soup ingredients
Here’s what you need to make this copycat Olive Garden minestrone recipe:
Please click on the recipe card to get the full recipe.
- Olive oil – Heart-healthy base for sautéing veggies
- White onion – Provides a sweet, aromatic flavor foundation
- Celery – Adds delicate texture and vegetal notes
- Carrots – Lend mild sweetness and vibrant color
- Zucchini – Delivers tender texture and fresh flavor
- Fresh garlic – Infuses soup with pungent depth
- Canned diced tomatoes – Form a robust, acidic backdrop for broth
- Vegetable stock – Creates a flavorful, plant-based foundation
- Bay leaf – Lends a subtle, earthy, herbal aroma
- Italian seasoning – Signature blend of herbs for classic flavor
- Tomato paste – Concentrates and thickensthe tomato presence
- Canned small white beans (cannellini) – Buttery texture and mild taste
- Canned kidney beans – Creamy, starchy texture and striking color
- Fresh or frozen green beans – Provide snappy texture and grassy flavor
- Small shell pasta – Perfect shape and size for spoonable bites
- Fresh parsley – Vibrant, peppery garnish to finish the soup
Chef’s Note: Cut vegetables uniformly for even cooking
How to make Olive Garden Minestrone Soup
Here are the simple steps for preparing the soup:
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot over medium to medium-high heat.
- Add onions, celery, carrots, zucchini, garlic, and salt.
- Cook for 3-5 minutes or until the vegetables turn color and soften.
- Add canned tomatoes, vegetable broth, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and bay leaf. Stir to combine everything.
- Bring the mixture to a boil and then turn the heat down to low to simmer the soup.
- Add white beans, kidney beans, green beans, zucchini, and pasta.
- Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the pasta and vegetables are tender.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Garnish with parsley if desired. Or you can sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top.
Recipe Notes and Tips
Here are a few tips for making this soup:
- Try to cut all the veggies more or less the same size so that they cook at the same rate.
- You can use fresh or frozen green beans, whichever you prefer.
- It’s ok to change the veggies depending on what you have on hand or what’s in season. Other great veggie options are russet potatoes, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, leeks, kale.
- To get rid of all that extra sodium, drain and rinse your canned beans before adding them to the soup.
- This vegan soup is hearty enough to serve as a main course, but if you’d like more protein, add some pieces of cooked Italian sausage or chicken. You can make up a big pot of this tasty soup beforehand.
- You can freeze this soup, but remember that the pasta and vegetables may be a little softer after thawing and reheating.
Please feel free to send me a comment on this soup. I always want to hear from my readers. And, be sure to take a look at more copycat Olive Garden soup recipes.
Storage Instructions and reheating instructions for leftover minestrone
Note: Pasta & veggies may soften slightly when frozen & reheated.
- Fridge: Cool completely, store in airtight containers up to 4 days.
- Freezer: Cool completely, transfer to bags or containers. Freeze up to 3 months. Thaw fully before reheating.
- Reheat: Warm gently over low to medium-low, stirring often. Add broth/water if needed.
What can you serve with Olive Garden Minestrone soup?
I recommend some homemade hot bread or salad with this soup. Why not try the Olive Garden Salad Dressing or some Homemade Olive Garden Breadsticks?
Best Minestrone Soup Recipe
If you are anything like me, you will be dipping into this pot of soup before it has even finished cooking. You will be breathing in the enticing aroma and won’t be able to resist.
Add a sprinkling of parmesan and some warm, crusty bread, and you’ll have a quick dinner that everyone will love.
Try these great Olive Garden copycat recipes!
- Shrimp Alfredo
- Gorgonzola Alfredo
- Fried Mozzarella
- Olive Garden Cheese Ravioli
- Crispy Chicken Fritta
- Chicken Gnocchi Soup
- Olive Garden Italian Dressing Recipe
- Shrimp Caprese
- Olive Garden Cheesecake – Pumpkin
- Peaches and Cream Cheesecake
More Soup Recipes
Make garlic parmesan hot wings as an appetizer to enjoy before the soup. The soup also goes well with this shrimp taco recipe.
Check out more copycat favorites and the best restaurant soup recipes.
Copycat Olive Garden Minestrone Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup white onion diced
- 1/2 cup celery diced
- 1/2 cup carrots peeled, diced
- 1 zucchini diced
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 14 ounces canned diced tomatoes
- 32 ounces vegetable stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 15 ounces canned small white beans drained and rinsed
- 15 ounces canned kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen green beans You can use fresh
- 1/2 cup small shell shaped pasta
- parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.
- When oil is hot add onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. Add a pinch of salt to help the vegetables sweat. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until the vegetables turn color and soften.
- Add canned tomatoes, vegetable broth, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and bay leaf to the pot. Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer.
- Add white beans, kidney beans, green beans, zucchini, and pasta. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the pasta and vegetables are tender.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- If desired, garnish with parsley.
Video
Notes
- You can use roasted diced tomatoes for a fun flavor.
- Consider using yellow squash instead of zucchini.
- Add more fresh vegetables if desired.
- If you have left over vegetables in your refrigerator consider adding them to this recipe. It’s a great way to use up left overs. (My Grandmother would call this soup “Got to Go Soup.”
Great soup! My whole family loved it.
Made this recipe for 80 in one batch. Because everything goes in one pot, it is very scalable. Got rave after rave.
Oh wow, that is awesome 😉 So glad it worked well for you!
This is the best minestrone recipe ever! It’s great when you are stuck at home.
It’s a cold and rainy day here in Maryland and the forecast is for more of the same for the next couple of days. I was craving minestrone and I love Olive Garden so I googled the recipe. I’m so happy to have found your website! I made your OG minestrone and the OG Chicken Gnocchi- my daughter’s favorite. Both turned out as good as OG maybe even better!! Thanks!
This is the best recipe for minestrone I have tried. Everything about this is absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing!!!
I am glad you liked this one!
You fail to mention when to add zucchini. Please correct.
Thank you for spotting my error, much appreciated.
Hi. Ingredients say veg stick, directions say broth. I’m making now and bought veg stock. Which is it please? I can’t wsit till done. I’m cooking pasta separate then adding. Thank you!
The vegetable stock should be used if you want it to be vegetarian. Chicken stock also works well.
it was just what I was looking for so amazing.
This was absolutely “the bomb”. I doubled the recipe but used beef broth and tomato sauce instead of paste.
I loved this recipe. I added a parmesan rind with fresh green beans & fresh roasted tomatoes. Thank you very much.
What a great idea for adding the parmesan rind. I need to try that next time!
I added some mild Italian sausage and it was wonderful—even better than the Olive Garden’s!!!
I used to love the Olive Garden Minestrone soup, but it has changed and is not any good now. Many, too many beans and the flavor is not as good as years before. A few beans OK, but they have totally ruined a really good soup with far, far too many beans. I will not order the Minestrone soup at Olive Garden.
I am really sorry you are disappointed in the current Olive Garden soup offering, at least when you cook at home you could remove beans from the soup if desired. I’ll mention it to the Olive Garden next time I am in!
I agree about the soup at Olive Garden. The one in our area decided to add a lot of spices to the soup. The broth was brown instead of red and the taste was off.. I wrote to OG and they wrote back and said they would look into the problem. The next time I went back the soup was back to it’s wonderful red broth self. I guess a chef decided to add his own ideas to the original recipe. If it’s not broke don’t fix it!
and WHERE ARE THE ITALLIAN GREEN BEANS they used to use??! LOVE THEM/cannot find them!
Love to make this for my whole family! An easy way to get the kids to eat their veggies!
I am so happy to finally have this recipe. It worked perfectly on my first try. So GOOD!
I loved it! Such an amazing meal any night of the week!
I served this to my card group, they loved it, and asked if I bought it at the Olive Garden.
This soup is total comfort food!!
This is such an easy recipe to make for the family! We love it!
I added some mild Italian sausage and it was wonderful—even better than the Olive Garden’s!!!
Seems wonderful! Think we could add some diced chicken to give it some more protein?
I think you could add some cooked diced chicken if you wanted, some meatballs would also be really tasty.