Name: Minestrone Verde
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Gluten-Free
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 medium onion, finely chopped; 2 medium leeks, white and pale-green parts only, finely chopped; 2 celery stalks, finely chopped; 1 bay leaf; 4-6 sprigs fresh thyme; 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth or water; 6 ounces sugar snap peas or snow peas, trimmed, sliced in half crosswise; ½ bunch small Tuscan kale, ribs and stems removed, leaves torn; 1 cup frozen peas, thawed or shelled fresh peas; 1 cup canned cannellini (white kidney) beans, rinsed and drained or cooked chicken*; Celtic sea salt, freshly ground pepper; Thinly shaved Parmesan or vegan parmesan (for serving)

Jump to Recipe

Minestrone Verde is a light, fresh, vibrant brothy soup with lots of green vegetables and tender white beans or chicken. Easy to make, with bright flavors of leeks, peas, kale, and snap peas.

Spring and summer soups are wonderful. I love using the fresh vegetables available in the farmers market to create a nutritious, delicious soup I can enjoy at breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Minestrone is a classic Italian vegetable soup that varies in different regions of Italy and in different families. The literal translation of minestrone is “big soup” ~ it’s a brothy soup with lots of vegetables that’s simple to make.

Minestrone Verde is an all green version filled with spring and early summer vegetables.

This soup is amazing! Each bite is fresh and bursting with flavor. It’s also easy to make.

The key to a delicious minestrone comes down to quality of ingredients and a few key tips. Having a flavorful broth is important. You can use vegetable broth or chicken broth. Homemade is always best but even a good store bought broth will taste great once you make the soffritto.

Soffritto is a mixture of aromatic vegetables like onions, leeks, and celery, slowly cooked in butter or oil and used as a base to add flavor to sauces, soups and stews. Carrots are often added but I left them out in this recipe because I want it to be totally green.

Once the soffritto is cooked, add thyme and bay leaf then the broth. Let it simmer for a few minutes to enhance the flavor of the broth.

For the vegetables I like snap peas for their crisp texture but they weren’t available so I used snow peas instead.

Then I add kale. Tuscan kale has a deep dark color and hearty flavor but any variety of kale will do.

The final vegetable is green peas. I use frozen because they’re so easy and taste great. But if you have fresh peas from your garden, that’s even more fabulous.

Simmer the vegetables along with canned cannellini beans. If you’re paleo and don’t eat beans, cooked chicken or turkey can be substituted.

Though very simple, this minestrone has an extraordinary flavor that gets infused into the broth from all of the fresh green veggies that stew in it.

Serve it topped with shaved parmesan or vegan parmesan.

This soup is so good it’s a reason to celebrate life! The comforting broth, packed with nutrient-rich, super green veggies will make you feel soooo… good. And you’ll love that it only takes 30 minutes to make.

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you like this recipe you may also like these other green soups:

Spring Pea and Broccoli Soup

Creamy Dandelion Soup

Cheesy Broccoli Soup with Leeks and Potatoes