Vegetable Soup

Published March 11, 2019. Updated September 20, 2024

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This Vegetable Soup has become one of my most popular soup recipes and for good reason! It’s healthy, it’s comforting, and 1,000 times better than what you’ll get in a can! Full of flavor and so easy to make—you can’t go wrong with a big warm bowl of vegetable soup.

To make it a cozy meal consider serving this with homemade 1 Hour Dinner Rolls or No Knead Bread.

Single serving of healthy vegetable soup in a white bowl set over a white plate. Set on a dark wooden table with a red napkin to the side.

The Best Vegetable Soup

Not only is this soup delicious, but it’s also so easy to make. It just takes some chopping of ingredients and a bit of simmering until you’ve got a soup everyone will love!

This is a recipe you’ll definitely want to add to your dinner or lunch rotation. And it yields a pot full and makes great leftovers!

What Vegetables Should I Add to Vegetable Soup?

You can put whatever vegetables you like in this soup, from seasonal fresh veggies to frozen ones. Here’s a list of what I used;

  • carrots
  • celery
  • tomatoes
  • potatoes
  • green beans
  • corn
  • peas
  • yellow onion and garlic

You may also want to stir in spinach or kale right towards the end of simmering. Sweet potato or butternut would be a fun autumn soup version. I sometimes like to add kidney beans or cannellini beans for more protein and texture.

Pot full of easy homemade Vegetable Soup.

How to Make Vegetable Soup – Watch the Video!

 

This soup is jam-packed with veggies making it a healthy dinner choice.

I had two bowls then came back before bed for a third because I liked it so much. I love that it uses half fresh veggies and half frozen so you still get all that freshness but have the ease of pre-cut frozen veggies too.

During the summer when you have all the fresh veggies in your refrigerator definitely feel free to use all fresh instead.

Can I Make This Soup in a Crockpot?

Yes. To make it in a crockpot saute onions and carrots for a few minutes, add garlic saute 1 minute longer. Add to slow cooker along with potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, herbs, broth, salt and pepper. Cook until veggies are tender on high heat for about 3 hours or low heat for about 6 – 7 hours. Add peas and corn during the last 30 minutes.

This is also a great instant pot vegetable soup recipe! Use your instant pot to saute your aromatics and then add all other vegetables to the pressure cooker. Be sure to securely lock the lid, then use the manual valve to release pressure when done.

Can I Freeze Vegetable Soup?

Yes. This soup freezes really well and reheats well. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.

Ladle full of homemade healthy vegetable soup.

Adding Extra Flavor – Herbs And Spices To Add

This soup has a mild seasoning blend to it which I prefer (because it lets the flavor of the vegetables shine) but you can definitely add more herb flavor or spices to taste if you want a greater depth of flavor. Here’s a few ideas of what you could add:

  • Fresh herbs or dried herbs such as basil, thyme, oregano, or marjoram.
  • Dried herb blends such as Italian seasoning or herbs de Provence.
  • Red pepper flakes will add a spicy kick.
  • Paprika or a curry powder.
  • Add a parmesan rind and simmer.
  • Spritz with fresh lemon juice.

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Single serving of vegetable soup in a white bowl set over a white plate. Set on a dark wooden table with a red napkin to the side.
4.93 from 431 votes

Vegetable Soup

This Vegetable Soup has become one of my most popular soup recipes and for good reason! It's healthy, it's comforting and 1,000 times better than what you'll get in a can! Makes 15 cups.
Servings: 8 servings
Prep15 minutes
Cook40 minutes
Ready in: 55 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. 
  • Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute 4 minutes then add garlic and saute 30 seconds longer.
  • Add in broth, tomatoes, potatoes, parsley, bay leaves, thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste.*
  • Bring to a boil, then add green beans. 
  • Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until potatoes are almost fully tender, about 20 - 30 minutes. 
  • Add corn and peas and cook 5 minutes longer. Serve warm.

Notes

Boosting Flavor 
  • For more flavor add in more dried herbs (or even triple the amount of dried thyme). Other good herbs to add include basil, oregano, rosemary, marjoram, or Italian seasoning.
  • Another option to add more flavor is to use a homemade chicken stock or vegetable broth.
  • You can also add a corn cob (that corn kernels have been cut from) in step 3 if using fresh corn.
  • It's also delicious to simmer a parmesan rind in with the soup, then remove at the end when removing bay leaves.
  • Optionally you can finish servings with grated parmesan and a splash of extra virgin olive oil.
Nutrition Facts
Vegetable Soup
Amount Per Serving
Calories 198 Calories from Fat 45
% Daily Value*
Fat 5g8%
Saturated Fat 1g6%
Sodium 259mg11%
Potassium 1051mg30%
Carbohydrates 31g10%
Fiber 6g25%
Sugar 8g9%
Protein 7g14%
Vitamin A 6070IU121%
Vitamin C 38.2mg46%
Calcium 106mg11%
Iron 5mg28%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition values are estimates only. See full disclaimer here.
Recipe originally shared Oct. 2014.

 

 

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1,092 Comments

  • Barbi Dial

    Pearled barley is a GREAT addition and I also added frozen OKRA from my garden last Fall to make it more of a VEGETABLE GUMBO! Okra thickens and gives a delightful flavor! I also added fresh CILANTRO because I am addicted to the flavor!

    • Renee Mitchell

      Thanks for these ideas. Do you know if I can substitute the 3 cups of potatoes with the pearl barley? If so, how much pearl barley should I use? Thanks again!

    • Margaret W

      I usually use a ladle to get my veggie soup out of pot and yes about 2 cups is what we call a serving but since it is mostly veggies I eat what I want. I made soup yesterday from my freezer bowl, it did not have a lot of beef in it which is fine with us, I even just looked around in the freezer and found maybe a half cup of mixed veggies in a bad and just dumped them in too, a Roma tomato on the counter top and maybe a half cup of left over pasta sauce that I was going to use as a dipping sauce. Every thing in the pot and it was wonderful soup, that little bit of pasta sauce which was garlic and herbs just made the taste pop to us.

  • Margaret W

    I grew up in a family where a big pot was needed to cook soup, I use one of the hints my mother always used, she always kept a big bowl in the freezer that had the left over veggies from meals, left over roast beef and broth, she had a little or a lot of left over veggies including tomato juice if we had just a little to much juice from chili it got thrown in. When the bowl gets full it is dumped into the pot and when it is thawed you can see what you need to added. Yes since there are only 2 of us now I always have a little left over veggies and have even added a small bits of mashed potatoes. tomorrow is veggie soup day at my house. To many people throw away little bits of veggies and that is not needed to be done.

  • Debbie Y

    Tasty recipe! I was looking for a veggie soup to make as a change from my favorite Ellie Krieger Minestrone soup and came across this one. So glad I tried it. Quite yummy! May try with beef broth next time just to see which flavor I prefer. A definite make again recipe.

  • Kathy

    This was delicious. Exactly what I was looking for. I will definitely be making it again!

  • Lindsay

    I agree with the comments that the soup’s broth was lacking flavor. I found another reviewer’s suggestion to add a few splashes of Worcester sauce really helped.

  • Kathy

    My friend tried to freeze vegetable soup it would freeze kind of slushy but would not get solid. What would or could be the reason for this?

  • Renee Mitchell

    This is the best vegetable soup I’ve ever had. However, next time I will substitute some kind of beans for potatoes. The potatoes were delicious at first, but did not taste good when reheated after freezing. Any suggestions?

    • Jaime

      I agree, I love this soup! I make it all the time…in fact I made it this week. i had the same problem with the potatoes though because it does make a huge batch and when re-heated after freezing the potatoes were mushy and gave the soup a weird texture. I switched to baby gold potatoes (the flesh is yellow), cut them into small pieces, and kept the skin on them. These don’t seem to disintegrate and I think the skin, while very thin, helped keep them in tact. Hope that helps!

      • Terisa

        Use red potatoes in soups and stews, they do not fall apart. Russets and yukons are for baking, frying and mashing. Red potatoes also hold up well in potato salad.