This Vegetable Orzo Soup Recipe is robustly flavored, full of veggies, and extra filling from orzo pasta and protein-packed kidney beans. A 30 minute, one pot soup that is great for lunch or dinner.
Every home cook should have a kick-butt veggie soup in their back pocket. This orzo vegetable soup is just that. Reminiscent of italian minestrone, this soup is abounding in vegetables, with a rich tomato broth, tiny pasta, and kidney beans.
Feel free to try different vegetables with making this. Green beans, peas, and asparagus come to mind as good options. Whatever is fresh and in season would work great here!
There’s so much room for creativity when making soups, and they are often extremely economical. Vegetables and carbs like beans, pasta, or rice take a front seat, and it’s easy to use less of the more expensive items, meat.
This soup has one of my favorite pasta shapes, orzo. For more tasty recipes using orzo, try pesto orzo salad and lemon feta orzo salad.
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Ingredient Notes
- Base vegetables: The classic base to many soup recipes- onion, garlic, celery, and carrot.
- Zucchini: Sliced in rounds or half moons. Green is used here, but yellow squash would work too.
- Dried herbs: Dried thyme and dried oregano to be exact. You can also add dried rosemary, or even use italian seasoning for a combination.
- Kidney beans: I used canned beans here instead of cooking my own, to save some time. If you want to use dry beans, I suggest cooking them separately. Here are instructions for cooking beans in the Instant Pot.
- Dry orzo pasta: Other options to orzo (sometimes called risoni) are any small pasta like dry israeli couscous, small shell pasta, ditalini, or macaroni noodles. Small shell pasta are used in sopa de conchas and ditalini are used in this bone broth chicken noodle soup.
- Tomato sauce & diced tomatoes: A can of each of these make for a sweet and tangy tomato broth.
- Chicken stock: This soup can easily be made vegetarian by using vegetable stock or vegetable broth instead of chicken stock. I like to use slow cooker bone broth in this soup recipe.
- Fresh spinach: Add the fresh baby spinach at the end to keep its color and texture.
- Fresh basil: This is a fun little addition to this soup. Add it at the same time you add the spinach.
Variations
- Make this a creamy orzo soup by adding ½ cup of heavy cream or half and half to the pot, just before serving.
- Add diced or shredded chicken to this orzo soup for even more protein.
- For a gluten free version of this veggie orzo soup, use gluten free orzo, rice, or leave out that ingredient entirely.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1. In a large soup pot, heat olive oil. Add in onions, celery, carrots, and garlic and saute until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes.
Step 2. Add zucchini and saute an additional 5 minutes.
Step 3. To the pot, add in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, thyme, and oregano.Stir and bring to a simmer. Add in dry pasta and kidney beans, and cook another 15 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente, or just tender.
Step 4. Add spinach and basil and stir. Cook for 2 minutes, until spinach and basil have wilted. Add salt to taste. Serve topped with fresh parmesan.
Recipe Tips
The pasta will continue to soak up the broth as it sits and cools. If you want, you can cook the pasta separately and add it as you serve the soup in bowls to avoid this.
How to Serve
Serve this soup as is or with a bit of freshly grated parmesan cheese for an italian restaurant style experience.
Top this italian orzo spinach soup with some red pepper flakes for a bit of heat.
More Soup Recipes
Did you enjoy this Vegetable Orzo Soup? I would love for you to let me know by leaving a comment and star rating. I can't wait to hear from you!
Vegetable Orzo Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 small zucchini sliced in half moons
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 large carrot
- 1 ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 1 15 oz. can of kidney beans
- 1 cup dry orzo
- 1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
- 1 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes
- 32 oz chicken stock
- 2 cups fresh spinach lightly packed
- ¼ cup fresh basil
- fresh grated parmesan for serving
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, heat olive oil. Add in onions, carrots, celery, and garlic and saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add in zucchini. Saute for about 4-5 minutes, until the onions are translucent.
- To the pot, add in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, thyme, and oregano.
- Stir and bring to a simmer.
- Add in dry pasta and kidney beans, and cook another 15 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente, or just tender.
- Add spinach and basil and stir.
- Cook for 2 minutes, until spinach and basil have wilted. Add salt to taste.
- Serve topped with fresh parmesan.
Sandy
Delicious base and seasonings. I did not have the kidney beans, spinach or basil but substituted more vegetables and black beans. The taste was amazing and will definitely make again when spinach and basil are fresh in my garden.
Paul C
This minestrone soup is our favorite winter soup. I have been making it for the past 2-3 years. I only put in a 1/2 cu of couscous and it is still a delicious soup. Thanks!
Sarah
Paul,
This makes me so happy to hear! Thank you for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate your kindness and that your family enjoys the recipe. Good tip about using less couscous!
Sarah