This healthy and hearty Vegetable Stew is packed with nutrients from carrots, onion, and tomatoes, plus pasta and white beans. The perfect way to fill up and warm up!
If winter rolls around and you immediately start craving stews and soups, this recipe is for you. It's totally filling and satisfying, but not loaded with cream or other heavy ingredients. Instead, this veggie soup makes the most of winter vegetables and aromatics. It gets protein from beans (if you like), and heartiness from gluten-free pasta.
Best of all, you can customize this recipe however you like. Feel free to use whatever veggies are the fridge!
Ingredients for Vegetable-Bean Stew
Here's what you need to make this healthy veggie and pasta soup:
- Veggies: I've loaded this soup up with celery, carrots, onoin, tomatoes, and greens.
- Aromatics: For a delicious flavor base, use garlic, bay leaves, and lemon juice.
- Vegetable broth. You can make your own for the best flavor, or use low-sodium store-bought broth.
- Pasta. I use gluten-free brown rice fusili, but any short-cut pasta will work.
- White beans. This adds protein, but you can omit the beans if you like.
SUBSTITUTION IDEA
Change up the protein by using chickpeas or shredded chicken.
QUICK TIP!
Want to reduce the sodium in your soups? There are two things you can do:
- Use low sodium or salt-free broth to replace traditional vegetable broth
- Make sure to drain and rinse your beans before adding them to the soup
Don't forget to taste as you go! Salt is an important part of savory cooking and will greatly enhance the flavor of your soup, but when YOU can control the amount, it's always better!
How to Make Hearty Vegetable Stew
I love that this recipe is just one pot. And most of the time spent is just letting it simmer. So it's pretty hands-off which makes it a great option for a weeknight. Here's how you'll make it:
STEP ONE: Saute
We'll begin by chopping our standard soup ingredients: onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Once you'be sauteed them and they're starting to soften, you can add in your tomato, broth, lemon and bay leaves.
STEP TWO: Simmer
From here, we need to let the soup develop some flavor. It takes about 20(ish) minutes, but really the longer it simmers, the more flavor you'll develop.
STEP THREE: Noodles & Beans
When you're about 10 minutes away from serving, add in your beans and noodles. Allow the noodles to cook until al dente, then remove the soup from the heat. I like to stir in spinach or kale at this point to add in some extra greens, but that's totally optional.
STEP FOUR: Serve
And lastly, scoop your hearty vegetable stew into bowls and you're ready to enjoy!
What to Serve with Bean and Vegetable Stew
I like to garnish each serving of this stew with grated parmesan. If you're dairy-free, simply use your favorite vegan shredded cheese!
On the side, add a slice of toasted bread to soak up all the delicious broth. And if you like, you can serve the stew with a side salad, such as Pear and Arugula Salad or The Best Greek Chickpea Salad.
Storage Suggestions
Store leftover soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. You can reheat servings in the microwave or on the stove.
If you'd like the freeze the soup, I recommend storing the noodles separately. Then you can cook and add pasta just before serving. Otherwise, the pasta tends to get mushy and soak up a lot of broth.
Dutch Oven
My absolute favorite pot for making soup! I've had this exact dutch oven for years and it still looks and feels almost new. I recommend the 7 1/4 qt for serving a crowd!
More Healthy Soup Recipes
If you make this Hearty Vegetable Stew, be sure to let me know what you think with a comment below!
Hearty Vegetable Stew
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup celery (about 2 stalks)
- 1 cup carrots (about 2 medium)
- 1 small white/yellow onion , diced
- 2 – 3 garlic cloves
- 6 medum tomatoes , chopped*
- 8 cups vegetable broth
- 2 bay leaves
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 cup gluten-free pasta (brown rice penne or fusili preferably!)
- 1 15 oz can white beans (drained & rinsed, optional)
- 3 cups kale/spinach
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Water if needed
garnish ideas:
- fresh herbs (parley, thyme or basil)
- nutritional yeast
- parmesan
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil over medium. Add the celery, carrots, onion and garlic and saute for 5 minutes until everything has softened slightly. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add in the tomatoes, broth, bay leaves and lemon. Drop the squeezed lemon into the soup and allow it to cook with the rest of the ingredients (trust me, it's so good!). Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 20 minutes.
- Stir in the pasta and white beans and cook another 10 minutes until the pasta is al dente. Season again with salt and pepper. If the noodles have soaked up too much liquid, feel free to add some water in to thin the soup out a bit.
- About 60 seconds before serving, stir in the greens. Allow the greens to wilt.
- Serve immediately. Garnish with fresh herbs, nutritional yeast, parmesan, etc. to your liking!
Nutrition
Could this be made in a crockpot?