A big, hearty bowl of delicious homemade Vegetable Soup is exactly what you need to feed your body and soul! LOADED with tons of colorful veggies, this is a dish that will fill you up and make you feel good about getting seconds!
Why You’ll Love This Vegetable Soup Recipe
When craving comfort food, it’s easy to leave out vegetables. While we all love rich meals full of carbs, cheese and cream, it’s very important to remember that we need our veggies too! But who said that had to be in the form of a boring salad?! Here are just a few reasons why you’ll fall in love with this homemade vegetable soup:
- Loaded With Fresh Veggies: This vegetable soup is a mouthwatering way to enjoy dinner, and nourish yourself and your loved ones. It’s loaded with vegetables — you can use whatever veggies you have on hand — and there is no shame in getting a second bowl!
- Guilt-Free Comfort Food: There’s something really special about a great bowl of hot soup on a cold day. It warms you up from the inside and makes you feel completely satisfied. Best part of all, you can enjoy this tasty soup knowing you’re making a great food choice!
- Family Friendly: Soups are the best way of getting kids to eat a variety of vegetables. It’s super easy to hide veggies they may not normally eat, and they’ll love every bite!
- Great For Meal Prep: This is an excellent recipe to use for meal prepping throughout the week. We usually make a big batch on Sunday and keep a few servings in the fridge for lunches and freeze a few of the other servings for the following week.
If you love this veggie soup, you’ll love some of our other easy vegetarian meal ideas! Check out our cheesy stuffed shells with spinach, orzo salad with arugula, or our amazing caprese stuffed air fried avocados!
What You’ll Need
These simple ingredients all come together to create the most delicious homemade vegetable soup ever! Scroll down to the recipe card for exact amounts.
- Olive Oil: Avocado oil works great too.
- Veggies: We’re using a rainbow of fresh veggies in this soup! Grab some yellow onion, celery, bell pepper, fresh garlic, zucchini, green beans, corn, and butternut squash.
- Potatoes: Regular or sweet potato are both fine.
- Beans: We love using red kidney beans, but black beans, cannellini beans, or chickpeas would also be great!
- Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes: You can also use regular canned diced tomatoes or even fresh tomatoes if you prefer.
- Vegetable Broth: You can also use beef or chicken broth if you don’t care if the soup is vegetarian.
- Seasoning: Bay leaves, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
- Fresh Herbs: Grab some fresh parsley and thyme.
How to Make Homemade Vegetable Soup
This vegetable soup recipe is almost too easy. Chopping the vegetables will be the only slightly time consuming part. Just do what we do – put on your favorite music and make chopping fun! Check out the recipe card at the end of the post for detailed instructions.
- Sauté: Sauté the onion, celery, and bell pepper in hot oil for about 5-7 minutes. Add the fresh garlic and cook for another minute.
- Simmer: Add all the remaining ingredients and simmer for 45 minutes with the lid on. The soup is ready when the root veggies (potatoes and squash) are tender.
- Serve and Enjoy: That’s it! Serve hot and enjoy!
Tips and Variation Ideas
Vegetable soup recipes should be nice and easy so you make them again and again. But we always love sharing a few tips from our kitchen to make sure your dish turns out perfectly every time.
- Change Up the Veggies: Vegetable soup is born to be customizable! Feel free to change up any of the veggies in our recipe based on what you have and enjoy eating. You can also use fresh, frozen, or canned vegetables based on what’s available in your area. We love adding some kale, spinach, parsnips, or even yuca!
- Make It Spicy: With three little ones in the house, we tend to ease up on the spice. However, this recipe is SO good with a little extra pinch of red pepper flakes! A dash of cayenne pepper would also compliment this recipe perfectly.
- Leave the Lid On: As tempting as it is to check on the soup, try not to remove the lid too much during the 45 minutes it takes to cook. Every time you lift the lid, the heat escapes and you’ll need to cook it longer.
What to Serve With Vegetable Soup
When it comes to homemade vegetable soup, serving it is always too easy! This soup is perfect all on its own with nothing else needed, but it’s also tasty when paired with freshly toasted sliced baguette or sourdough bread to soak up the broth.
It also serves wonderfully with a light salad tossed in homemade honey mustard dressing! If you’re looking for some salad ideas, we’re big fans of our fresh strawberry spinach salad or our incredible wilted lettuce salad with hot bacon dressing.
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
The best part of a making a big pot of veggie soup is the leftovers. They’re awesome for lunches or light dinners! Here’s how to store and reheat.
- Refrigerate: Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, these leftovers will stay fresh for up to a week!
- Freeze: You can also freeze them in individual portions in a freezer friendly ziplock bag. When you’re ready to serve, just let them sit overnight in the fridge to thaw and then reheat as normal.
- Reheat: You can quickly heat up a bowl in the microwave, or heat up a few portions on the stovetop. Up to you!
More Easy Soup Recipes
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 stalks of celery, diced
- 1 medium bell pepper, cored and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 carrots, chopped
- 2 zucchini, chopped
- 1 ½ cups green beans, trimmed and cut in half
- 2 cups diced potatoes
- 1 cup corn, fresh or frozen
- 2 cups butternut squash, cubed
- 1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 14.5 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 32 oz broth: vegetable, chicken or beef
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon fresh parsley
- ½ teaspoon fresh thyme
Instructions
- In a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat, add olive oil, onion, celery and bell pepper. Sauté until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
- Add all of the remaining ingredients and simmer, with the lid on the pot, for 45 minutes, until root vegetables (potatoes and butternut squash) are tender.
- Serve immediately and store leftovers for up to a week in the refrigerator or freeze them for an easy meal later!
I made this soup last week and had it for dinner three days in a row! So delicious! I don’t like squash, so used sweet potato and parsnips, the rest I kept the same. I love this recipe and will be making it often. Thank you for sharing!