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Olive Garden Minestrone Soup
Olive Garden's minestrone is a hearty, vegetable-packed Italian soup with beans, pasta, and a tomato broth that's perfect for dipping those famous breadsticks.
olive-garden · casual-dining · soup
🕑Prep15 min
🍳Cook30 min
⏱Total45 min
🍽Serves8
⭐DifficultyEasy
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 1 medium zucchini, diced
- 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
- 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (15 oz) white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups fresh baby spinach
- 1 cup small shell pasta (or ditalini)
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- Grated Parmesan, for serving
Instructions
- 1.Saute the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Cook for 5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- 2.Add the tomatoes and broth. Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juices and the vegetable broth. Stir in the Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil.
- 3.Add the beans and zucchini. Add the kidney beans, cannellini beans, and diced zucchini. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
- 4.Cook the pasta. Add the small shell pasta directly to the soup. Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is al dente. The pasta will absorb some broth and thicken the soup.
- 5.Add the spinach. Stir in the baby spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes until wilted.
- 6.Serve hot. Ladle into bowls and top with a generous sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese. Serve with crusty bread or Olive Garden-style breadsticks.
Olive Garden Minestrone Soup
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
Olive Garden’s minestrone is the soup you order when you want something hearty enough to be a meal but light enough to leave room for breadsticks and an entree. It’s loaded with vegetables, two kinds of beans, small pasta, and fresh spinach in a tomato-based broth seasoned with Italian herbs. Every spoonful is different — you might get a bean, a piece of zucchini, a shell full of broth, or all three at once.
This is the kind of soup that gets better the next day as the flavors meld and the pasta absorbs more broth. If you’re meal prepping, cook the pasta separately and add it when reheating — otherwise it gets mushy overnight.
Minestrone Mastery
- Don’t skip the zucchini. It adds a slight sweetness and body to the broth that other vegetables can’t replicate. Cut it into small dice so it integrates into every spoonful.
- Cook pasta in the soup. The starch from the pasta thickens the broth slightly, giving it that characteristic Olive Garden creaminess. If you cook the pasta separately, the broth stays thin.
- Fresh spinach at the end. Adding spinach in the last 2 minutes keeps it bright green and tender. Add it too early and it turns army green and mushy.
Soup and Breadstick Economics
A bowl of minestrone at Olive Garden is included with your entree, or about $7 on its own. This recipe makes 8 generous servings for about $8 total — $1 per bowl. Make a pot on Sunday and eat it for lunch all week.
