Minestrone Soup

Pasta, beans, and lots of vegetables come together in this hearty and healthy Italian soup.

I’ve been developing healthier recipes professionally for nearly 20 years and without a doubt, the type of recipe that presents the greatest challenge is soups. Getting homemade soups to taste great without adding too much sodium (salt) is a bit of a feat. Let’s face it, salt makes food taste good.

With today’s recipe, I wanted to show you what happens to the sodium content when you make adjustments to some of the ingredients. I analyzed a minestrone soup recipe that I recently came across three different ways. The original recipe with no sodium-lowering adjustments, the recipe posted below with a few sodium-reducing tweaks, and an extreme sodium-reduction version.

The minestrone soup below has great flavor and, as far as soups go, is pretty moderate in sodium. Sodium-lowering techniques I used included draining and rinsing the kidney beans. Draining and rinsing canned food like vegetables and legumes reduces sodium content by about 40 percent. Another change from the original recipe was using fresh green beans in place of canned. And, instead of adding 1 teaspoon of salt, as was called for in the original recipe, I added a 1/2 teaspoon. All and all, pretty minor adjustments.

Without those sodium-reducing adjustments, a serving (1 cup) of the original minestrone soup had 705 milligrams of sodium. With the ingredient adjustments, the sodium content dropped to 517 milligrams. That’s a meaningful reduction.

If you wanted to take it to the next level and lower the sodium content further, use no-added salt canned whole tomatoes, reduced-sodium vegetable broth, unsalted canned kidney beans, and omit the kosher salt. Those changes result in a soup containing 281 milligrams sodium per cup. Full confession, I did not test this extreme sodium-reduction version so I can’t comment on the flavor.

Bottom line – if you’re trying to lower your sodium intake, any adjustments you make, no matter how big or small, can add up to huge health rewards.

To your health,

Darlene

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MINESTRONE SOUP

Yield:  10 servings

Serving Size: 1 cup

Prep: 15 minutes

Ready: 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 cup diced onion

• 1 cup diced carrots

• 1 cup diced celery

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 teaspoons dried oregano

• 2 teaspoons dried basil

• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes

• 1 container (32 ounces) vegetable broth

• 1 cup fresh, cut into 1-inch pieces, green beans

• 1 can (15 ounces) dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

• 4 cups fresh baby spinach, stems removed

• 3/4 cup dry orecchiette pasta or elbow macaroni

• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Sauté until vegetables begin to soften; about 3 to 5 minutes. Add oregano, basil, and red pepper flakes and cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes.

2. Crush tomatoes by hand into bite-size pieces (or roughly chop) and add to the pot along with the broth, green beans, kidney beans, and spinach. Reduce heat to low and allow soup to simmer for 20 minutes.

3. While soup is simmering, in a separate pot, cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt if called for. Drain pasta and add to the soup along with the vinegar, salt, and black pepper; stir to combine. To serve, top each 1-cup serving with 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese.

Cook’s note: The spinach stem, once wilted in the soup, can become stringy. That’s why it’s good to remove them.

Nutrition Information per Serving

146 Calories, 6 g Total fat, 1 g Saturated fat, 0 g Trans fat, 4 mg Cholesterol, 517 mg Sodium, 17 g Total carbohydrate, 5 g Dietary fiber, 4 g Total sugars, 0 g Added sugars, 6 g Protein, 0 mcg (0%) Vitamin D, 137 mg (10%) Calcium, 2 mg (10%) Iron, 418 mg (8%) Potassium

© 2022 RECIPES MADE HEALTHY BY DARLENE ZIMMERMAN, MS, RD LLC

Minestrone Soup

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