I’m partnering with Buitoni and Nestle’s Balance Your Plate to share my favorite minestrone soup recipe with you guys. This soup recipe features both fresh and refrigerated foods, and that’s what balance your plate is all about, teaching you guys how to build tasty and nutritious meals without having to sacrifice your favorite foods, like Buitoni three cheese tortellini! Whether you are using frozen or refrigerated food items, it’s easy to build tasty meals around them, like this veggie loaded winter minestrone soup.
October is National Pasta Month, it’s also the time of the year when the fall chill sets in and you need some tasty comfort food recipes to keep you warm. This instant pot recipe for minestrone soup only takes 40 minutes, and that includes using dried white beans that don’t need to be soaked beforehand. I wanted to load this minestrone with as many veggies as possible, because the broth is so rich and tasty, it’s a great way to sneak more veggies in your diet. I love the idea of using store bought refrigerated pasta to help build a meal the whole family will enjoy. I mean, who really has time to be making homemade pasta these days!? If you want more instant pot comfort food recipes, check out my chicken pot pie.
This meal comes together perfectly with the addition of Buitoni three cheese tortellini. It’s a great time saving ingredient to have in your fridge, and allows you to make a complete meal with ease. Allow the minestrone to sit for 10 minutes after the cooking is done, and then release the pressure manually on the instant pot. Meanwhile, you can boil the tortellini according to package instructions, drain, and then add them to the soup.
The make this the ultimate minestrone soup recipe you have to build massive flavor, and that starts with rendering some bacon in the instant pot. The bacon will give the soup a meaty backbone, and it does not hurt that I used the rendered bacon fat to saute some fresh rosemary, thyme, and sage. I know that the urge is to toss everything in the instant pot and start cooking, but if you take the time to cook the veggies for 12 minutes, you will build massive flavor.
We are using a mountain of sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions for this minestrone soup recipe, by taking the time to cook them down, you concentrate their flavor and evaporate most of their moisture. I also like to use crushed tomatoes, Parmesan rind, dried beans, and a bay leaf to round out the flavors of this soup.
Every soup needs something to dunk in it, so once again I am employing a time saving trick by using Buitoni Pesto with Basil. The flavor of this pesto is fantastic, especially when you slather it on a crusty piece of bread that has creamy ricotta on it. I also roasted some cherry tomatoes in a 400 F oven until they burst, and put that on top of the crostini. The flavors are just popping, and the crostini is perfect to dunk in the soup.
Make sure you check out my other soup and winter comfort food recipes:
- Roasted butternut squash soup
- Dessi’s lentil soup
- Beef chili meal prep with cornbread
- Three roast spaghetti squash recipes
Hi! This looks amazing! I don’t have an instant pot unfortunately. Is it possible to make this recipe without it? If so, what adjustments can be made to the instructions?
Nadine, follow the exact same directions, just simmer the soup for 1 hour instead of 40min in the instant pot.
I made it on the stovetop (even though I have an IP)!! Everything was super-easy to assemble that way. And I loved this recipe!
The only thing I adjusted was that I cooked the beans on the side using the following method on the stovetop. It’s a great way to quick prep dried beans if you don’t have an IP (although an IP is amazing for beans!): https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/soaking-salting-dried-bean-myths-article
This was incredibly good! I had some ingredients on hand to use up so I slightly altered the recipe (fresh spinach instead of kale, added some diced celery/zucchini to use them up), but nothing that would alter the overall flavor profile of the end product. You could absolutely add/omit different veggies based on your preferences or what you have on hand. The fresh herbs give amazing flavor so if possible, use fresh. Kid-approved and added to our meal rotation!
Lynne, so glad to hear it!!! This minestrone is a favorite in our home too! And, yes, you can totally use any veggies you want!
Made the Minestrone soup this week…fantastic! Just a note to let you know that the recipe calls for potatoes but in the instruction does not indicate when to add them to the pot. Not the end of the world but I thought you might want to know.
Thank you, Robert! Glad you liked it! And thank you for the note, I’ll updated!