Crockpot Minestrone Soup
This Crockpot Minestrone Soup is a family favorite.
I love coming home to a nourishing and warming meal after a long day. Packed with beans and vegetables this soup is a complete meal.
Why you’ll love this recipe
Minestrone soup is a staple on every Italian family table. However, I don’t think any two recipes would be the same.
The recipe I’m sharing with you is a combination of my dad’s minestrone and my mother-in-law’s soup plus the slow cooker part is mine. What’s great about using a crockpot to make anything is that the kitchen doesn’t heat up. For that reason, crockpot pepper steak and slow cooker chicken tacos are also a favorites on our dinner table.
So, in the middle of spring, I’m still making this crockpot minestrone soup because I love the convenience of having a meal ready when I get home. Plus, it still has all the flavors of Nonno’s minestrone.
A similar recipe is my Instant Pot Bean Soup. This is the soup I make if I’ve forgotten to soak the beans because it uses canned beans and is still super delicious!
For complete ingredient quantities and full instructions, please scroll to the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.
Ingredient notes
Generally, I like to use a combination of dried peas, beans, and lentils, plus vegetables like carrots, celery, and zucchini. Buy more zucchini than you need so that you can make my flavorsome Italian Zucchini Fritters.
This Crockpot Minestrone Soup requires about 2 cups of mixed dried peas, beans, and lentils. Dried peas and lentils dissolve during long cooking, resulting in a delicious, creamy texture in the soup. While the larger beans remain whole.
I buy an Italian soup mix which contains a combination of:
- borlotti beans
- navy beans
- red kidney beans
- black eye peas
- chickpeas
- yellow lentils
- red lentils
- green split peas
If you can’t buy a premixed variety, choose your favorites. Be sure to choose a combination of lentils or split peas along with your choice of beans.
While you are in a soup kind of mood, be sure to try out my delicious Mediterranean lentil soup; everybody in my house loves it!
Instructions
The night before, place the beans, chickpeas, lentils, and split peas in a large saucepan and cover it with tap cold water. In the morning, bring to a boil and boil continuously for 10 minutes, then drain and set aside for later.
- Fry onion, garlic and bacon.
- Scrape the onion mixture into the crockpot (slow cooker).
- Pour a cup of water into the frying pan and scrape up the browned bits. Pour into crockpot.
- To the crockpot, add parboiled bean mix and the remaining ingredients except pasta.
- Stir and cook on high for 7 hours.
- Stir in the pasta and cook for another hour.
Tips for Success
- It’s simple to make a really tasty crockpot minestrone. Firstly, in a little oil, fry the onion, garlic, or any aromatic until just beginning to color. In the case of this soup, also brown the bacon.
- Use any liquid to deglaze the frying pan and lift all the browned bits. This is where the flavor lies, so don’t wash it down the sink! Tip the flavored liquid into the slow cooker with all the other ingredients.
- Use a good stock. For optimum results, make your own chicken stock. But there is a lot of quality prepackaged stock available at the supermarket you can use.
- Don’t store dried beans for too long because they continue to dry out and aren’t quite as good.
FAQs
Dried beans are not so hard to cook with. I recommend that you soak the beans overnight. Now, you will find some people telling you there is no need to soak dried beans. Maybe you can get away with this using very fresh dried beans. However, you can never tell the age of the beans you buy and how long they have been sitting on the shelf. It is better to err on the safe side and give the dried beans an overnight soak. Be sure to use plenty of water. You’ll be surprised at how much water they will absorb.
It is recommended to boil beans for 10 minutes on high before adding them to the slow cooker. This will ensure all the toxins are removed, and the beans are safe to enjoy.
Yes! Canned beans are great in recipes like this and my Beans and Greens Recipe. I like to use a 15-ounce/400-gram can of each – red kidney beans, chickpeas, and white beans. Plus 1/2 cup of red lentils. In this case, boiling is not necessary. Cooking time will be reduced to 4 hours.
Sure! Just add to the slow cooker and proceed with the recipe. Flavor won’t be as intense, but it will still be very good.
This recipe makes quite a lot of soup – 8 servings, actually! I love that anything in the slow cooker usually freezes very well, and this minestrone soup is no exception. But if you are going to freeze leftovers, don’t add the pasta, or it will swell and become mushy. In fact, it is just as good with or without the pasta.
This is a wonderful complete meal, but I do love a slice of sourdough or chunk of Ligurian focaccia on the side. Enjoy my family’s Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup!
More recipes from Nonno
Cavatelli
Tagliatelle Pasta
Pesto Gnocchi
Saffron Risotto
Made this recipe?
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Crockpot Minestrone Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup dried beans see Notes 1 and 2
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped or crushed
- 1 cup diced bacon
- 1 cup water
- 2 carrots peeled and diced
- 1 potato peeled and diced
- 2 celery sticks diced
- 1 zucchini diced
- 1 cup sweet potato diced
- 3 cups water extra
- 3 cups chicken stock
- ½ cup tomato puree (passata)
- 2 bayleaves
- 1 parmesan rind
- black pepper freshly ground
- ½ cup dried pasta optional, see Note 3
Instructions
- Place the beans into a large pot and cover generously with water. Soak overnight. The next day, bring to the boil and boil continuously for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside for use later.
- In a frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat.
- Fry the onion and garlic until translucent.
- Add the bacon. Cook until starting to brown.
- Scrape onion/bacon mixture into slow cooker bowl.
- Return pan to heat, add 1 cup water and stir to scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.
- Tip this water along with all the flavoursome browned bits into the slow cooker bowl.
- Add remaining ingredients (including the cooked beans) except for pasta.
- Cook on high for 8 hours
- About 1 hour before the soup is done, add the pasta and stir well. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Serve with a generous grating of Parmesan cheese
Stove Top Version
- Simply fry onion, garlic and bacon in a large saucepan.
- Add remaining ingredients (except pasta) and bring to the boil. Skim if necessary.
- Reduce heat and simmer gently, covered for 2-3 hours or until beans are tender and lentils and split peas have broken down.
- Add pasta in the last 10 minutes.
Notes
- Grab an Italian soup bean blend! These vibrant packs typically burst with a variety of beans and lentils, like borlotti, navy, red kidney, black-eyed peas, chickpeas, and a rainbow of lentils (yellow, red, and green split peas).
- If you can’t find an Italian soup bean blend, pick your favorites! Just be sure to include a mix of lentils or split peas along with your chosen beans for the best textural symphony in your soup.
- Any small dried pasta will be fine. Don’t add the pasta if you are going to be freezing the soup because the pasta will swell and become mushy.
Nutritional Estimate Per Serving
Nutritional Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. For accurate results, it is recommended that the nutritional information be calculated based on the ingredients and brands you use.
Looks great! Do you have any suggestions for adding flavor while leaving out the bacon/making it vegetarian? Can’t wait to try it!
Sarah, this soup is so flavorsome that it will still be delicious without the bacon. Be sure to use some lentils in you bean mix and to caramelize the onion for extra flavor. Adding the Parmesan rind is a great idea and serving the soup with lots of Parmesan cheese adds to the flavor. My Lentil Soup is full of flavor and doesn’t have any bacon so you might want to have a look at that too.
Your minestrone looks comforting and absolutely delicious!
Minestrone is the perfect comfort food!
Oh my gosh Marcellina this minestrone looks absolutely amazing! Gorgeous photos. I love minestrone soup, and since it’s decided to be overcast and cooler the last few days here it’s a perfect time for soup!
As soon as the weather is overcast, I feel like soup too!
Oh this soup sounds amazing! I’m all about the slow cooker for delicious soups, and I love the flavors in minestrone soup. I definitely need to put this one on our menu…especially today as it’s cold and rainy here. That’s perfect soup weather!
Absolutely, rainy day and soup go hand in hand. Enjoy!
I am so ready to enjoy a bowl of this soup. The weather is starting to feel like fall here and your soup is on my list to make. Now to get to the store for the ingredients! It looks perfect.
I know you will enjoy this soup, Linda!
You are reading my mind, soup is everything I am craving. This minestrone looks wonderful and yes a slice of sour dough would be great with it. I think its nice that you created your recipe from your dads and mother in-laws, the soup is like a blending of families 🙂 . Take care.
Stacey, I’ve been blessed to have these two wonderful cooks in my life. xx
Hi Marcellina,
I’m making your minestrone soup tomorrow, it looks delicious. ????
Hi Judy! So glad to hear you’re trying out my recipe. It’s a family recipe partly from my dad’s side, partly from my mother-in-law and I added the slow cooker bit. We love it! Hope you do too xx
Ooh this looks wonderful Marcella! I love that it’s a combo of two recipes too-the best of both worlds 😀
Yes, Lorraine, I’m fortunate to have had the guidance in the kitchen of both my late dad and my mother-in-law.