Healthy Vegetable Soup recipe is the best ever! Hearty and comforting, it’s packed with veggies for an easy flavor packed meal that tastes miles above any canned version.
This homemade soup is just one of my favorite heartwarming soups like minestrone soup, traditional borscht recipe, and Russian cabbage soup.
Table of contents
This healthy vegetable soup recipe is the pinnacle of versatility when it comes to healthy soup recipes. Use fresh, frozen, or even canned ingredients and pick the cooking method that suits you – stovetop, slow cooker or Instant Pot.
Whether you want a comforting yet light veggie packed lunch or a hearty, comforting meal, this homemade vegetable soup is the answer!
Why This Is the Best Vegetable Soup Recipe
- Nutritious and delicious: Chunky vegetable soup is packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. It is gluten free and can be vegetarian and vegan when you omit the Parmesan garnish.
- Versatile: Swap out the veggies, herbs, aromatics, and even cooking method and still enjoy the best vegetable soup of your life.
- Clean out the fridge: Have carrots starting to look a little limp, a forgotten about bell pepper in the crisper drawer, or ‘almost’ wilting spinach? Chuck them in this healthy vegetable soup recipe!
- Low calorie: Did I mention that it has under 200 calories per serving, too?! Enjoy a few bowls, guilt free!
- A one pot meal: Fuss free and less clean up. What’s not to love?
What Vegetables Should I Use?
Whether you use fresh garden produce or frozen vegetables, it will likely work in this soup! To give you an idea here is what I used:
- Canned tomatoes (low sodium, fire roasted for extra flavor)
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Celery
- Zucchini
- Bell peppers
- Corn
- Onion
- Garlic
- Fresh dill
How to Make Vegetable Soup
This soup is great for meal prep and batch cooking! It will be a year round staple in your kitchen.
Sauté the onion: Preheat a large Dutch Oven or soup pot over medium heat with a swirl of oil. Once hot, add the onion and sauté for three minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then, add the smoked paprika, oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Mix and then cook for a further minute, stirring frequently.
Add stock and longer cooking veggies: Add the potato, carrot, celery, and bell pepper to the pan along with the vegetable broth and can of diced tomatoes.
I crumbled bouillon cube and added water instead of broth. Same thing.
Cover and simmer: Stir well, then bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover, and cook for 25 minutes, or until the potato is fork-tender.
Add the remaining veggies: Add the frozen corn and chopped zucchini and simmer the veggie soup for a further 5 minutes.
Add the finishing touches: Finally, remove the soup from the heat. Add the grated garlic and dill and mix in. Give the soup one final taste and adjust seasonings, then serve warm with parmesan cheese and yogurt.
Favorite Variations
Homemade veggie soup is so versatile! Here are a few ways to mix it up.
- Other veggies: Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, mushrooms, kale, spinach (added at the end), pumpkin, squash, sweet potato, fresh green beans. Thinly shredded cabbage could be added 15 minutes before other ingredients.
- Parmesan rind: Add the hard parmesan rind to your soup broth right at the beginning and remove it before serving.
- Cooked beans: Add bulk and protein to this soup and they can even be pureed for thicker veggie soup. White beans, red lentils, and Instant Pot chickpeas are my favorites.
- Herbs and spices: I particularly like rosemary, thyme, sage, and marjoram. Italian seasoning would be a great blend. A pinch of red pepper flakes will add heat.
- Lemon juice: Just a small squeeze of lemon brightens veggie soup flavor.
- Pasta or grains: For a heartier soup, add a grain like quinoa, rice, or whole wheat pasta. We love pasta in pasta e fagioli soup!
Can I Make This in the Crockpot?
Yes! Add a 6 oz can of tomato paste and skip zucchini. In a large slow cooker, combine all ingredients, cover and cook on Low for 10 hours or on High for 5 hours. Add garlic and dill or optional parsley, and serve hot.
You might also love this slow cooker lentil soup.
Can I Make This in the Instant Pot?
Yes! In Instant Pot, add all ingredients plus 6 oz can tomato paste. Do not add zucchini, dill, cheese and yogurt.
Pressure cook on High for 20 minutes. After display beeps and says OFF, do Quick Release. Open, add zucchini, close the lid and let sit for 5 minutes. Add garlic and dill, serve hot with garnish of choice.
You can also follow the instructions for my Instant Pot vegetable soup.
Can I Freeze Veggie Soup?
Yes, transfer it to a freezer-safe container or bags, portioned for easy thawing. Freeze for up to 2 months.
If you have opted to use potatoes in this soup, be aware that the texture may change upon thawing.
How to Serve?
I like to serve mine in wide deep plates with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, a tablespoon of yogurt or sour cream, and a slice of whole grain bread, rye bread, or baguette.
Using wide deep plates allows your soup to cool off faster, which is a huge bonus for kids!
You could also enjoy the soup with a simple green salad or Italian chopped salad.
More FAQs
I recommend storing it for between 2-3 days. After that, the veggies become too mushy.
Yes, you can use fresh, frozen, or even canned vegetables for this easy vegetable soup. Generally, you can add frozen veggies in the last five minutes as they are already blanched.
You can use more starchy vegetables like potatoes in the soup or even add pureed legumes. You can also puree part of the soup with an immersion blender.
Storage and Reheating Tips
Store: Allow the soup to cool for between 1 – 1.5 hours before transferring to an airtight container. Store in the fridge for up to 2 days. Any longer, and I find the veggies become too mushy.
Reheat: Reheat soup on the stove over low heat. You can also reheat the soup from frozen, it just takes longer.
More Veggie Packed Soups
- Chicken noodle vegetable soup
- Instant Pot minestrone soup
- Healthy broccoli cheese soup
- Lentil spinach soup
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 4 large potatoes medium chopped
- 3 large carrots medium chopped
- 3 medium celery stalks medium chopped
- 3 cups bell peppers medium chopped
- 2 medium zucchini medium chopped
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 2 cups corn fresh or frozen
- 6 cups vegetable stock low sodium
- 28 oz can diced tomatoes low sodium
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 medium garlic clove grated
- 1/3 cup dill or parsley finely chopped
- Parmesan cheese and yogurt for garnish
Instructions
Stovetop Vegetable Soup
- Preheat large dutch oven or large pot on medium heat, swirl a bit of oil to coat and add onion. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add smoked paprika, oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper and bay leaves; cook for 1 more minute, stirring frequently.
- Add potato, carrot, celery, pepper, stock and diced tomatoes; stir. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes or until potato is fork tender.
- Add zucchini and corn, cover and simmer for 5 more minutes. Turn off heat, add grated garlic and dill.
- Serve hot garnished with Parmesan cheese and yogurt.
Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup
- Add a 6 oz can of tomato paste and skip zucchini.
- In a large slow cooker, combine all ingredients, cover and cook on Low for 10 hours or on High for 5 hours. Add garlic and dill.
Instant Pot Vegetable Soup
- Add a 6 oz can of tomato paste.
- In Instant Pot, add all ingredients in the order listed above except zucchini, dill, cheese and yogurt. Pressure cooker shouldn’t be more than 2/3 full.
- Close the lid, set pressure vent to Sealing and press Pressure Cook on High or Manual for 20 minutes. After, do Quick Release by turning pressure valve to Venting.
- Open, add zucchini, close the lid and let sit for 5 minutes. Add garlic and dill.
Video
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate for 2 days in an airtight container.
- Freeze: Cool, transfer to an airtight glass container (leaving some room for expansion), and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Reheat: On the stove on low heat, thawed or frozen (it just takes longer).
- Frozen and other vegetables: Use your favorites. You can also add thinly shredded cabbage 15 minutes before other ingredients.
- Adjust sodium: If not using low sodium stock and tomatoes.
- Smoked paprika: It makes this soup super flavorful. I wouldn’t swap it for regular paprika.
The Best tasting vegetable soup recipe I have found while searching the internet. I enjoyed it with a little Parmesan and sour cream to complete the meal. I have lost a substantial amount of weight to reach a normal bmi. However I am struggling to maintain the weight loss. This recipe allows me to eat until I am satisfied and Maintain my loss. Thank-you sooooo much
for this recipe Olena. Any other of your recipes you might suggest to me?
You’re so welcome, Norma! Glad this is getting added to the repeat list! I appreciate your review. This turkey egg roll in a bowl is a good one too.
I would love to add a bean for some protein. What kind of bean would you recommend for this soup?
Red kidney beans or cannellini beans would be wonderful. Meaty and large. Enjoy!
A good addition to our soup collection.
I followed the directions as they were laid out in a pressure cooker. My family loved it. I never thought I would see my son eat zucchini or carrots and he went back for seconds. Your recipes are so easy to follow….Thank you!!!
It’s my absolute pleasure to hear you enjoyed this recipe so much! Your comment made my day! Glad to hear everyone loved it!
Hi Olena,
I have a question: I see that your recipe calls for 4 large Russet potatoes but I only have red or yellow ones at this time. I would love to make this soup but wondering how many of the red – or yellow potatoes would I use in place of the 4 russet potatoes? An estimation would be very much appreciated. I haven’t decided if I’ll be making this on stovetop or in the slow cooker, but definitely am going to make this as I have everything here except russet potatoes.
Thank you in advance. Still loving your recipes – ALL that I’ve tried have been winners!!
Hi Tricia. You can use any potatoes and truly eyeball them. It’s how much you want and depends on their size. I would use 5 medium sized potatoes. Hope this helps and I’m so glad to hear you are enjoying my recipes!
Thank you for your reply back… appreciate it. I thought it would be about 5 or 6 red or Yukon potatoes depending on the size of them & how many I wanted in the soup. I just wanted your input.
Again, thank you, Olena! And, yes, I am STILL enjoying your recipes after many years since finding your website. It’s still the one I always go back to.
Wow, this sounds delicious 😋. I am going to try this soup. My husband and I absolutely love all kinds of soups. Easy directions and it sounds tasty. Thanks
Sounds good. Hope you guys, enjoy it!