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 Soup
- Tortellini Soup
- Minestrone Soup
- Butternut Squash Soup
- Tomato Soup
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Or any of these 35 Best Soup Recipes!
Vegetable 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, 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.
I don’t know what I did wrong! I cut the sweet potatoes smallish and they have been simmering for over 45 minutes and are still not fully soft but every other veggie is absolute mush. At one point I had to add more broth because it had reduced down so much. This is taking forever!!
hmmm, the sweet potatoes shouldn’t take 45 minutes.
I made this last night! I had leftover veggies in my fridge and my go-to is a stir fry but I needed to use up sweet potatoes! I found this recipe and threw in my sweet potatoes, broccoli, and bell peppers. I used crushed tomoatoes instead of diced and swapped the chickpeas for navy beans. Even with all the changes, the flavor was amazing and definitely what I needed. Mine was a little on the thick side probably because of the crushed tomotoes, but I like it like that!
We love this soup! Do you have nutritional value info?
I made this soup twice now, the first time I made it exactly as recipe called, the second time I didn’t do it exactly & it wasn’t as good.
I will always follow the recipe to the tee in the future because I couldn’t get enough of it when I did (the second batch that I changed up was still good I ate every last bit of it, but not as good as following the recipe eactly was)
Recipe serves 6, but do you know the approx. serving size? I’m wondering if it’s roughly closer to 1 cup or 2 cups per serving. If I’m eating soup, I always have around 2 cups per serving, so I may want to double the recipe if a serving size is closer to 1 cup.
Hi Tatiana, I didn’t measure the final soup in cups but if I had to guess I’d say that it’s between 1.5 cups and 2 per serving.
Thank you! I’ll start with the recipe then and let you know how it goessss
Perfect for a gloomy day! I can’t believe I never thought to add chickpeas into soup – amazing. Thank you for all your incredible recipes.
I’m so glad you loved it!
ok I love the soup but there was WAY too seasoned like the oregano..it could have been my fault but you have to remember that spices in soup enhance by like 3x!! Soup was still really good and the instructions were understandable:)
Fabulous soup. A great healthy break from all the Christmas cookies I’ve been scarfing down!
Jeanine, thank you so much for this recipe! After years of trying bland soup recipes I was about to give up but decided to give it one more go. I’m so glad I found yours. It was well worth the wait. I didn’t change a thing. I didn’t expect much because it looked so simple. How wrong I was. This was the best veggie soup I’ve ever had. Many thanks.
Hi Kari, I’m so glad you loved it!
Made this a couple of months ago. Time to make again. It is wonderful. This recipe will go in my recipe box for frequent use
Wonderful soup! I mixed sweet and white potatoes, added cabbage and spinach instead of kale, but stuck to the basic recipe. Great tasting soup, perfect for a fall night. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
Wonderful wonderful wonderful. For the herbs I use Bouquet garni. It is a keeper.
Hi Lisa, I’m so glad you loved it!
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This is absolutely amazing. I added Gardein vegetarian beef, but otherwise followed the directions. This soup is delicious! Thank you.
Made this and was pleasantly surprised! Never thought that zucchini and sweat potato would be so delicious in a soup!! Will be making again!
Not much compares o]to my grandmothers veg soup but this one is t]right up there – found my new veg soup for the year! Too many times I’ve tried to put vinegar in at the end and soups are not to my liking -used half vinegar half lemon this time- perfect.
Thanks for a great recipe
Hi Amber, I’m glad you enjoyed the soup.
This was such a lovely dish! Simple and perfect for the cold weather we’ve been having.
Hi Jenn, I’m so glad you loved it!
This soup is a winner in my household. I used all the vegetables and added frozen peas. I also used the butternut squash and omitted the wine because I didn’t have any.
A very hearty meal that I will cook often.
Thank you.
This was really good. I used celery, sweet potato, zucchini, pinto beans and kale. I also used a splash of vinegar, like you suggested, in place of the wine to deglaze the pan after cooking the onions. At the end I used a big squeeze of lemon juice and topped with a little Parmesan, per your suggestions. It was really delicious. My first recipe of yours, but definitely not the last!
Hi Sara, I’m so glad you loved the soup!
Wow this looks so good. Craving a bowl or 3 right now. Siobhan x | Vegan Babe Life