Make this easy vegetable soup recipe with whatever veggies you have on hand! Nourishing and light, it's perfect for warming up on cold nights.
This vegetable soup recipe is cozy, healing, and warming. It’s just the thing for cold nights, days when you’re craving a healthy reset, or any time you’re feeling a bit under the weather.
I first started making it years ago, when I was bouncing back from a cold and had a ton of random veggies in the fridge. Using the ingredients I had in my pantry—vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, dried herbs, and vinegar—I transformed this jumble of vegetables into an amazing soup! Since then, I’ve made it again and again, with a different mix of veggies every time. No matter what produce I have on hand, this easy vegetable soup always comes out delicious.
Vegetable Soup Recipe Variations
I call for a lot of vegetables in this soup, but use whatever you have on hand and/or skip what you don’t have. Here are a few easy ways to change it up:
- Use all carrot or all sweet potato instead of both, or add butternut squash instead.
- Toss in a few sliced cremini mushrooms when you add the carrot.
- Swap bell pepper for the cherry tomatoes, zucchini, or green beans.
- Use another leafy green, like spinach or chard, in place of the kale.
- Garnish bowls with chopped fresh parsley or basil, a scoop of pesto, or sprinkle of Parmesan cheese!
The veggies aren’t the only flexible part of this recipe! Feel free to vary the other ingredients as well. Here are a few ideas:
- Add a tablespoon of dried Italian seasoning in place of the oregano.
- Skip the vinegar, and add a big squeeze of lemon juice in its place.
- Omit the chickpeas, or replace them with white beans or cooked French green lentils.
Let me know what variations you try!
Serving Suggestions
Enjoy the soup on its own, or pair it with a salad and crusty bread for a heartier meal. It also goes nicely with a grilled cheese sandwich.
How to Store Vegetable Soup
I like to make a big pot of this vegetable soup and eat it the next day and the day after that. It keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days—the flavor improves as it sits in the fridge!
For longer storage, freeze the soup for up to 3 months.
More Easy Soup Recipes
If you love this easy veggie soup, try one of these vegetarian soup recipes next:
- Best Lentil Soup
- Cabbage SoupÂ
- Tortellini Soup
- Minestrone Soup
- Butternut Squash Soup
- Tomato Soup
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Or any of these 35 Best Soup Recipes!
Vegetable Soup
Equipment
- Le Creuset Dutch Oven (I use my Staub Dutch oven for soup)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 medium carrot, diced
- 1 small sweet potato, diced
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano, or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme or rosemary
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped green beans
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1½ cups chopped kale
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, salt, and several grinds of pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes. Add the carrot and sweet potato, stir and cook 2 more minutes.
- Add the canned tomatoes, garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Stir in the broth and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, for 20 minutes.
- Stir in the cherry tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, chickpeas, and cover and cook 10 to 15 more minutes, until the green beans are tender.
- Stir in the vinegar and the kale and cook for 5 minutes, until the kale is wilted. Season to taste and serve.
Of all the vegetable soups I have ever made, this is by far the best. The only change, I used 1 large can of whole tomatoes instead of the fire roasted tomatoes. Will be making this again and again. (hubby agrees).Thanks for a great recipe.
I’m so glad you loved it!
I am a very inexperienced cook. Please tell me what to do. How can I get vegetable broth if I haven’t started cooking anything yet? I mean, I don’t have canned vegetable broth in the fridge. I have nowhere to get vegetable broth to add it to fried onions. What should I do?
Use vegetable boulion + water, or just water (the soup will be less flavorful). If you haven’t made vegetable broth ahead of time, you have to use boxed, canned, or boullion.
Thank you for this recipe. The changes I will be making are for IBS: swap onions for cabbage, and swap the chickpeas for black beans. I will also be swapping cherry tomatoes out for red and green peppers. Can’t wait to clean out my veg drawer!
I hope you love the soup, Donna!
The soup was very flavourful and very adaptable. Thank you.
This soup is absolutely delicious! Tastes even better on the 2nd day. Thanks!
I subbed more carrots for the green beans and accidentally bought fire roasted tomatoes with green chilis. The soup turned out really well.
Just the right amount of spice. (I omitted the red pepper flakes). My husband raved. Healthy and delicious. I highly recommend it.
Hi Debbie, I’m so glad you both loved the soup!
Used this recipe as first solid meal after breaking a 10 day fast. It is excellent!! Or I was just starved haha. Actually we throughly enjoyed it and will be placing it in rotation!
I deviated from the recipe just a little bit. Accidentally grabbed crushed instead of diced roasted tomatoes and didn’t have the cherry tomatoes. Probably a bit darker tomato broth but still nicely balanced flavor. Used a red potato instead of the sweet. Roasted diced yam in the airfryer threw it in with the chick peas and some white beans. Thank you for explaining it can be used with just about anything. I can see how that works now. SO GOOD!
I’m so glad you loved it!
Love this recipe, my wife asks me to make it regularly