Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup with Tortellini 

Slow cooker minestrone soup with tortellini is a hearty dish your family will love. Packed with veggies, protein, and noodles, it's a feast!

Slow cooker minestrone soup embodies everything I love about both slow cookers and soup. This delicious minestrone soup with tortellini is rich and hearty, full of veggie goodness and so, so easy to make. It's the perfect dish for any occasion.

One of the things I love about using a slow cooker is how easy it is to make a great soup. Too often when we try to make soup over the stovetop and things get rushed.

There is not enough time to let the broth reduce and the flavors don't get a proper chance to meld the way they should, or the way we would like them, too. That's the most important thing about soup and we miss it when we try to push dinner onto the table too early.

It doesn't help that soup is always the first thing to serve either. My Slow cooker minestrone soup is a delicious blend of melded vegetables and other hearty ingredients that comes out perfect each time without having to make a batch way in advance.

We all know the magic of a slow cooker, you fill it with all the ingredients, you let it heat on low for the day, and come back to it at night when it's ready. A thick vegetable soup like slow cooker minestrone soup is just the way to enjoy a rustic Italian staple.

What Exactly Is Minestrone Soup?

Actually, there is no exact recipe for minestrone soup. The name minestrone is used to mean thick vegetable soup, which is a start. However, as you can see with this slow cooker minestrone soup recipe, minestrone is not necessarily a vegetarian dish, although it can be.

Essentially, by definition vegetables are the only ingredients required. However, there is not even a set ingredient list for what vegetables can or should be used in a minestrone.

What is constant about the soup is that it remains a rural cuisine, true to its roots as a dish for peasants rather than nobility. Although it was a frugal dish, such a diet was valued as healthy as well as simple.

Minestrone, which in modern Italian is the word for a substantial soup or stew predates the Roman Empire, but as Rome gained control of trade routes, more ingredients were used most notably meat.

Minestrone has always been a soup made of whatever vegetables were available but around the 2nd century, A.D. began incorporating more ingredients such as meat, animal stock, and even pasta such as tortellini.

What To Serve With Minestrone Soup For Dinner

For a meal as special as this, it's important that you find just the right soup side dish to create a well balanced dining experience that your family will enjoy time and time again.

Wonton crisps are a delightful addition to any soup recipe. They add that crunchie texture that we all dream of. So, watch out crackers, wonton crisps are right on your tail!!

A side dish would make this soup absolutely to die for. Check out What to Serve With French Onion Soup to find the perfect side for you and your family.

Two Classic Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup Ingredients

Although minestrone soup comes in several varieties, this slow cooker minestrone soup has two ingredients that have become synonymous with this dish in most people's minds: Italian sausage and tortellini.

Italian Sausage from America

One meat we frequently incorporate into minestrone and identify as Italian is Italian sausage. However, Italy is known for many types of sausage.

So-called Italian sausage as we know it is usually pork and uses a spice blend common to Italian cuisine with an emphasis on fennel. While we associate it with Italian flavors, it is an American creation. At least it's the American interpretation of what we believe Italian sausage is.

This isn't the first time the two cultures' cuisines have crossed paths. It was trade ships from the Americas that introduced tomatoes and potatoes back in the 1600s.

Those American ingredients have since become staples in the Italian soup. The sausage in this slow cooker minestrone soup makes it a heartier dish that is more sufficient as the main course.

Adding Tortellini to Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup

Another key to this incredible slow cooker minestrone soup that causes the minestrone to become even thicker and heartier is tortellini. Tortellini is easily among the most substantial pasta.

It's a stuffed pasta with more shape than other pasta such as ravioli. The result is something you can sink your teeth into, making it a welcome component to predominantly vegetable soup which is less to chew on.

Why the Slow Cooker Is Perfect for Thick Soups Like Minestrone

Slow cooking is ideal for soups because you let them stew all day and the flavors get to commingle.

A thick Italian soup like minestrone which uses many vegetables is perfect for the slow cooker because it can break down all the ingredients gradually over time to produce the best results when you aren't looking.

Since this recipe is chock full of vegetables plus tortellini and sausage, the slow cooker is even more important to achieving the best possible results for this dish.

Other Types of Minestrone Soup

Although there is no strict recipe to adhere to, there are variations on the concept of minestrone that are common in different regions. For example, a version in Liguria more heavily uses herbs and even incorporates pesto.

Malta has its own kind of minestrone as well. This version uses potatoes and a thick tomato paste. They also sometimes use spaghetti.

This slow cooker minestrone soup is not my only hearty meat and vegetable soup recipe or even my only tortellini soup recipe. This soup hits all those Italian flavors we love, but if you want a creamier Italian soup that is less vegetable-focused, try my creamy tortellini soup.

If you would like a similar blend of hearty beans and vegetables with Mexican spices, You'll love my recipe for chicken tortilla soup.

Neither of these other soups is what you would call a traditional minestrone, but they are very thick robust soups. That puts them in the same category.

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup with Tortellini is a Time and Money Saver

A soup as thick and bountiful as this slow cooker minestrone soup will likely produce more than you can eat at one sitting. Depending on how many people you need to feed, you will have a substantial amount of the soup leftover.

Based on standard serving size, this recipe creates approximately 12 portions. You can store this soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

That means that this meal which is already frugal by historical reputation can save you even more money on meals throughout the week.

Even though it takes from 3 to 8 hours to make depending on the heat level you choose to cook slow cooker minestrone soup at, this soup is a tremendous time-saver as well.

That's because the whole cooking process is all prep. It only takes about 20 minutes of actual work with the various ingredients for a few days worth of meals.

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup with Tortellini 

Prep Time: 20-25 minutes

Cook Time: 3-5 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low

Servings: 12 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 lb cooked ground italian sausage
• (2) 15oz cans of crushed tomatoes
• ⅓ cup sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
• 8 medium red potatoes
• 3 large, full carrots
• 5 stalks of celery
• ½ yellow onion
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon italian seasoning
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cups water
• (1) 15oz can dark red kidney beans
• (1) 15oz can great northern beans
• 1 cups sliced zucchini
• 2 cups tortellini
• 1 cup frozen green beans
• 2 cups spinach
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• Fresh parmesan cheese to garnish

Instructions:

1. Dice carrots, celery, onion, potatoes and zucchini. Set aside. 
2. Lightly grease the bottom of a 6-quart or larger slow cooker. Add the ground sausage, crushed tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, carrots, celery, potatoes, onion, garlic, seasonings and bay leaves into the slow cooker. Add vegetable stock and water and stir lightly. 
3. Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours. 
4. After cook time is complete, add kidney beans, great northern beans, zucchini, green beans and spinach. Cook on high for 30 minutes. 
5. While the soup is cooking, cook the tortellini according to package directions. 
6. When soup has completed cooking, you can prepare your bowls. Place tortellini in the bottom of a soup bowl. Use a ladle to pour soup over tortellini. Garnish with fresh parmesan cheese over top. 
7. Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup Variations

As you might have guests from reading the story behind minestrone soup, this soup is highly versatile. Because this soup was originally invented as a way to use whatever vegetables happened to be on hand, you can add almost any vegetables you like to this soup.

There really are no rules here. Root vegetables work well, as do beans. Basically, if you have a vegetable, you can put it in this soup.

Although tortellini is most often used in minestrone soup, you can also use any short noodles you like, as well. Various macaroni varieties and even egg noodles would work well.

Minestrone soup is basically a pantry buster, so you can put anything you want in it. Any kind of vegetable. Any kind of noodle. Any kind of meat. Anything goes. Just throw it in there and see what happens. That's the fun of this recipe!

Storing Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup with Tortellini

This soup will last for about 4 to 5 days in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. You can also freeze this soup for a couple of months in an air-tight, freezer-safe container or a heavy-duty freezer bag. It reheats very well and very easily.

Simply put the frozen soup in a pot and heat it up!

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup with Tortellini FAQ

Before we go, let's hit the high points of this delicious soup. As always, this FAQ will be short, but it will also be full of important information regarding this soup.

Q: What is minestrone soup?
A: Minestrone soup is basically a vegetable soup. Originally, it was a soup designed to use whatever vegetables were on hand, but over the years, it has evolved into being a base for all kinds of additions.

Q: What are the most common additions to minestrone soup?
A: Italian sausage and tortellini noodles are most commonly added to minestrone soup. In fact, many people don't know that minestrone soup began as a vegetable soup because of those additions.

Q: How long will this slow cooker minestrone soup last?
A: This soup will keep in the refrigerator for about 4 to 5 days in an air-tight container. For longer storage, you can freeze this soup for about two months in an air-tight, freezer-safe container or heavy-duty freezer bag.

Q: Is minestrone soup healthy?
A: Minestrone soup can be exceptionally healthy depending on what you put in it. This slow cooker minestrone soup with tortellini is a relatively healthy dish. It's full of vegetables, and although Italian sausage has a high fat content, on the whole, this dish is a healthy option.

Make this Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup Part of your Life

This soup needs a home, and you're just the person to give it one - in your belly! Packed with vegetables and so hearty, this soup is one of the best meals you'll ever make.

It's so easy and so good, there's no reason not to give it a try.

So grab your veggies, sausage, noodles, and your slow cooker and get cracking. In no time at all, you'll be enjoying a healthy, hearty soup that everyone in the family will love.