I love the smell of this Italian soup cooking in the slow cooker. If you have time in the morning, do a bit of chopping and toss it all into the cooker. Set on low for 8 hours or high for 4 and you'll have a delicious soup waiting for you when you get home.
This is one of the easiest ways to get more veggies into your life. And, I almost always have these basic ingredients in my pantry (so should you). Canned tomatoes, veggie broth, beans, and basic vegetables... potatoes, carrots, celery, and pepper. The addition of spinach kicks it up a notch because we like to get our greens in every day.
You could also up the protein by adding your favorite seitan sausage links, cut into pieces or crumbled. For last night's meal, I was inspired to add a bit of homemade soy yogurt that I'd made a few days ago. It added a nice tang and creaminess to the soup and was delicious.
I made this in my older Cuisinart slow cooker, but I also have an Instant Pot which is all the rage these days because it's also a pressure cooker. There are different sizes of the Instant Pot. For my purposes, the 6 quart is plenty big. You can also purchase a clear lid to use when you're done and just move the ceramic pot into the fridge to store leftovers.
I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments below for this Italian Soup recipe! If you have a photo, post it on my Facebook page, tag me using the hashtag #plantbasedcooking
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 4 hours |
| Servings | people |
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 3 cups vegetable broth or water
- 1 14.5 oz can Italian-style diced tomatoes
- 1 14.5 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 can pinto beans drained and rinsed
- 2 large carrots sliced
- 2 ribs celery sliced
- 2 small red potatoes ½” cubed
- 1 large green bell pepper chopped
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 - 1 Tbl dried basil
- 3/4 cup whole wheat Orzo pasta, uncooked
- 2-3 cups packed fresh spinach
- salt & pepper to taste
Ingredients
| Rate this recipe! |
- Into a large slow cooker, add the onion and the chopped garlic along with both cans of tomatoes (undrained), the beans, sliced carrots, sliced celery, red potatoes, and bell pepper and the water or vegetable broth.
- Add in the seasonings: Italian seasoning, oregano, and basil. I add in salt and pepper to taste. Depending on the saltiness of the broth, you might want to completely omit salt.
- Put the slow cooker on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
- After 8 hours (or 4 if you're on high), add the orzo pasta and cook another 20 minutes or until the orzo is done.
- Then, gently stir in the spinach.
- Taste and adjust seasonings to your preference.
- Enjoy with crusty whole grain bread.
Would love to make the slow cooker Italian soup with spinach but could you break this down to just 4 servings? I am a single person with a small crockpot.
Hi, There is actually a way to adjust the servings on the recipe and the number of ingredients will change. Give it a try, it’s inside the number of servings where little arrows show up if you scroll over it. Probably 1 serving is too small but try 2 servings. I realize that it’s kind of hard to figure .3 of a 14.5 ounce can of tomatoes, but luckily with soup, the exact measurements don’t matter. If you don’t mind freezing extra, you could save that for later when you don’t feel like cooking. Or would cutting the recipe in half work for your crockpot? That seems the simplest to me. I hope that helps.