Slow Cooker Vegetarian Minestrone Soup

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Minestrone Soup should be your first choice if you are a mom with little kids who can get hungry at any possible hour of the day!It takes about 8 hours to cook the first time but you can refrigerate it and heat it anytime after that and it’ll taste just as yummy!This soup is a healthy combination of any and all vegetables that are available to you. You can use any combination of vegetables and beans for this soup as per their availability in your home. Even leftover vegetables will do!

Let’s have a look at how this amazing soup is made.

Minestrone Soup recipe tastes best when it is hot. Store it in a storage container to keep it warm for hours together.

Health Benefits

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Minestrone is a very healthy soup especially for kids. The mix of vegetables that children won’t eat generally becomes ten times tastier when served like this. In addition, their nutrition makes everything all the more better.The light calorie content of the soup saves you from consuming extra fats. You can savor this filling soup without worrying about consuming any excessive calories.

Ingredients

salt to taste

Water as needed

olive oil: 2 tbsp

ditalini: 1 packet

chopped carrots: 3

chopped celery: 3 stalks

chopped onions: 2 large or 4 small ones

chopped zucchini: 1/2

chopped stems of swiss chard: 3

vegetable stock: 5-6 cups

swiss chard leaves: 5-6

cloves minced garlic: 5-6

cannellini beans: 2 cans

tomato puree: 2 cans

Italian seasoning: 1 tbsp

cayenne: 1 tsp

Dried oregano: 2 tsp

salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper powder – to taste

spinach leaves: 10-12

grated parmesan cheese – as needed

How To Make Slow Cooker Vegetarian Minestrone Soup

For the Pasta

1. Take a deep pot.
2. Pour 5 to 6 glasses of water into the pot.
3. Add salt and oil in the pot and bring the water to boil.
4. Add the Ditalini pasta into the pot and let it boil until it is only half tender.
5. Drain the hot water and run the pasta through cold water.
6. Set it aside until it is needed for the soup.

For the Soup

1. Put a slow cooker on the stove.
2. Add chopped celery, chopped carrots, chopped zucchini, chopped stems of Swiss chard, minced garlic and cannellini beans into the cooker.
3. Mix all the vegetables well.
4. Now add tomato puree, Italian seasoning, oregano, cayenne, salt and freshly ground black pepper into the cooker.
5. Mix all the spices with the vegetables well.
6. Add vegetable stock into the cooker, cover the lid and let the slow cooker vegetarian minestrone soup cook on low flame for at least 8 hours.
7. After 8 hours, remove the lid and add spinach leaves and Swiss chard leaves into the soup.
8. Cook for a few minutes then add the boiled pasta into the soup.
9. Mix it well into the rest of the soup.
10. Ladle out a large bowl of soup and garnish with grated parmesan cheese to serve hot!

Trivia

• The word Minestrone is generally understood as, ‘a mix of all things’.
• Sometimes, Minestrone also denotes, ‘hodgepodge’ or ‘thrown-together’.

Although, it is a vegetarian soup, you can add meat into it if you want to. It’s a very common practice around the globe.