Minestrone! We’re talking hearty soup, soup loaded with earthy beans, tender noodles, and leafy greens. Follow this easy basic recipe for vegetarian lasagna minestrone soup with lentils and kale, and learn how to personalize your own big minestrone soup!
If you’re like me, a cook who sometimes decides what’s for dinner at the last minute, you need recipes like minestrone soup in your back pocket.
“Minestrone” translates to “big soup” in Italian. This super adaptable healthy vegetable minestrone is a go-to soup.
How to make minestrone soup your go-to winning recipe:
- Make sure your pantry always holds some sort of pasta, if not lasagna noodles, maybe butterfly, penne, or shell shapes.
- Also, keep several different varieties of beans, in cans or dried, partiularly lentils, because they cook quickly.
- Canned diced tomatoes, keep those in your pantry as well.
This particular minestrone features ribboned strips of noodles, together with nutritious kale and quick-cooking rustic lentils. Built on an aromatic base of onions, garlic, carrots, and celery, everything pressure cooks (or simmers) in a tomato-spiked vegetable broth. Big soup!
Make this recipe your minestrone soup template–the changeup possiblilities are many. Choose your favorite pasta shape, a companionable legume, and whatever leafy greens you happen to have on hand.
Use a pressure cooker and your go-to minestrone soup can be done fast, fast, fast!
That said, just because I always make soup in a pressure cooker doesn’t mean you have to. Like what if you don’t have a pressure cooker or Instant Pot? I include regular stovetop directions too, because you must make this minestrone–it’s too good to pass up.
Variations for lasagna minestrone soup with lentils and kale:
- Cooked along with kale and lentils, the thinner lasagna noodles come out on the softer side of al dente. I’m willing to forgo the toothier texture in exchange for one pot pressure cooking.
- If you want your noodles perfectly tender to the tooth, or if you’re using a different pasta, like penne, for instance, boil the pasta in a separate pot and stir into the soup at the very end.
- The same with beans, like white beans or pintos, legumes that take longer to cook than lentils. Cook the larger beans separately and heat them in the soup just before serving. ** Feel free to substitute canned (drained and rinsed beans) instead of lentils—heat them in at the end too.
- Kale isn’t the only green. You can sub in chard or collards or spinach.
A couple notes about this minestrone soup:
- Make it gluten free: Use gluten free pasta, and cook separately to make sure they don’t get mushy.
- For extra flavor depth, stir spoonfuls of basil walnut pesto into the pot.
You might also like this recipe for spaghetti with greens, another delicious last-minute go-to pasta dinner.
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Lasagna Minestrone Soup with Lentils and Kale
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced (about 2 cups)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 cups diced carrots
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup French green lentils, sorted and rinsed
- 8 cups vegetable broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 bunch kale, stems removed and discarded, leaves coarsely chopped
- 6 whole wheat lasagna noodles broken in large pieces (see note)
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt plus more, to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese, optional
Instructions
For the Instant Pot pressure cooker: (For pressure cooking with a stovetop pressure cooker, see notes below.)
- Heat the oil with the Instant Pot pressure cooker set on Sauté. Stir in the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is golden and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, vegetable broth, bay leaves, chopped kale, noodles, lentils, and salt and pepper.
- Lock the lid in place, making sure the steam vent is closed. Switch to Manual and set the timer for 4 minutes, high pressure. Switch to off and wait 4 minutes. Carefully turn the pressure valve to quickly release steam. When the valve drops, open the lid. Remove the bay leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If desired, serve with Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese.
For the stovetop:
- Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium flame. Sauté the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery until the onion is soft and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the tomatoes, vegetable broth, bay leaves, chopped kale, noodles, lentils, and salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the lentils are tender but firm, about 20 minutes. (Since there is no lid locked in place, add the noodles after 10 minutes and cook the soup until the noodles are just tender to the tongue, about 10 more minutes.)
- Remove the bay leaves.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper. If desired, serve with Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese.
