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This vegetable & gnocchi Italian soup is bursting with flavor and can be made in around 30 minutes, making it an easy weeknight meal.
Let’s be honest: for many of us, cooking at home requires a complete lifestyle change. Alex and I like to talk about how simple cooking at home is — and it is, truly. A few basic skills like chopping an onion and mincing garlic can go a long way. But for those of us who didn’t grow up cooking (like me!), the hardest part is the lifestyle change. Nourishing food doesn’t just jump onto your plate. You have to get it there. You have to make the time to find it, store it, and cook it. You, and only you, must make the time to orient your life around cooking fresh food. Alex and I learned this the hard way, with years of over-processed and under-delicious foods. So you might be surprised to see me now, making this vegetable & gnocchi Italian soup.
Related: Best Healthy Dinner Recipes | Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi
How to make Italian soup
The act of making soup has become so familiar, almost like a dance. Dicing the onion and mincing the garlic now takes me minutes, an activity which once would have taken me half the night. (Plus I would have avoided it altogether because really, who wants to wash a cutting board and knife?). Sautéing the onion, then throwing in the garlic and fresh basil fills the kitchen with a smell reminiscent of an Italian pizza kitchen. The pot sizzles when I pour in the broth for the Italian vegetable soup and add the tomatoes and veggies. Then it cheerfully bubbles at simmer until it smells too good not to taste, when I stir in the gnocchi and spinach. When the gnocchi float and the spinach turns a lovely, bright green color, I know the soup is ready.
And the flavor of this Italian soup? Homey, comforting, and heart-meltingly good. It’s taken years, but this is what keeps us going. The fact that in just over 30 minutes we can create something that nourishes our bodies, satisfies our palates, and brings us closer to the people we love is ultimately one of the more rewarding things I’ve ever learned.
This Italian soup is naturally so flavorful you can stay vegan / dairy-free by choosing to omit Parmesan cheese, and it still tastes great! The soup can be made in about 30 minutes, which makes it perfect for an easy weeknight meal.
Fresh food matters
We created this Italian soup recipe, which is our trick for the most delicious way to eat loads of fresh veggies, for Sub-Zero and their Fresh Food Matters initiative. It’s a movement that we wish we thought of ourselves, because it is so much of the heart behind what we do, too. I love this quote from Sub-Zero: “We believe that fresh food can make a positive difference in your life. Fresh Food Matters is about inspiring people to think about their own relationship with fresh food and learn how they can incorporate it into every day.” Fist bump to that! Head to
Fresh Food Matters to learn more about this initiative.
Listen to us: the A Couple Cooks Podcast
Even better, Sub-Zero is partnering with Katie Stagliano of Katie’s Krops, a 17-year-old who started a non-profit to end hunger by growing fresh food. We chatted with her a few days ago, and this girl is amazing! Want to listen? Here’s Katie’s episode: A Couple Cooks Podcast Episode 18: From Garden to Table! More about the Fresh Food Matters campaign is at FreshFoodMatters.com, including interviews with 13 notable experts who share the impact food has in their lives, in addition to some practical tips for how to purchase and store fresh food from season to season.
Looking for more healthy and easy soup recipes?
Outside of this Italian soup, here are a few of our favorite delicious healthy and easy soup recipes:
- Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup Recipe
- Cauliflower Soup with Moroccan Spices
- Vegetarian Chili (with vegan cashew cheese)
- Cozy Farro & Brussels Sprouts Soup
- Creamy Coconut Curry Pantry Soup
- Tomato Sage Chickpea Soup
- Red Lentil Soup
- Creamy Vegan Tomato Soup
- Tuscan Soup with White Beans
- Tomato Artichoke Lentil Stew
Related: Try using our Homemade Vegetable Broth for this Italian soup!
This recipe is…
This Italian soup recipe is vegetarian. For gluten-free, use gluten-free gnocchi. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, omit the Parmesan cheese garnish.
Vegetable & Gnocchi Italian Soup
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 1x
Description
This vegetable & gnocchi Italian soup is bursting with flavor and can be made in around 30 minutes, making it an easy weeknight meal.
Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- ½ cup chopped basil leaves, plus additional for serving if desired
- 15-ounce can chickpeas
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pinches red pepper flakes
- 1 quart vegetable broth
- 28-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes*
- 15-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Fresh ground pepper
- 1 ½ cups frozen (or fresh) cut green beans
- 1 pound gnocchi (gluten-free if necessary; here’s our favorite)
- 4 to 6 cups spinach leaves
- Parmesan cheese, for serving (optional)*
Instructions
- Chop the onion and mince the garlic cloves. Chop the basil. Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Saute the onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and basil for 1 minute. Add the chickpeas, red pepper flakes, broth, both cans of tomatoes and their juices, kosher salt, and several grinds of fresh pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the green beans, then simmer for 15 minutes.
- Break apart any clumps in the gnocchi, then add them to the pot and cook for 5 minutes until tender. Turn off the heat and stir in the spinach until wilted, about 1 minute.
- To serve, ladle soup into bowl and top with Parmesan and basil leaves if desired. Allow to cool slightly before diving in!
Notes
*Note: Use fire roasted tomatoes if at all possible; avoid “no salt added” varieties. With the fresh basil, the soup is very flavorful and doesn’t require the addition of cheese, but feel free to add if desired.
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
I’m just here to comment that I love this soup and have been making it for years now! It’s super easy/quick to make, is a satiating comfort food AND it’s packed with nutrition! Can you ask for anything more?
Made the recipe as printed….love it! Even my meat and potatoes man loved it! As we get older we find we can’t eat as much and “heavy” meals don’t sit well. Soup is perfect for us. This has SO much flavor without gobs of salt and the gnocchi make it just the right amount of “fill me up” without being heavy.
Hi there. Have you any experience with freezing this soup??
Thx much.
Jacki
We don’t have personal experience with freezing it…but we think it should work! We’re not sure how the gnocchi would hold up, but assume they would. Let us know if you try and we can update the recipe.
I made this soup yesterday to have with sandwiches. We had friends over and it was a big hit. I’m not a fan of fire roasted tomatoes so I I used 2 15oz cans of regular diced tomatoes and one can of fire roasted to tone down the smokiness. Added a sprinkle of oregano and used Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi (our friend has celiac disease and wanted him to enjoy it) and it was delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
Left out 2 ingredients – the red pepper flakes and the spinach. Did not saute anything just threw it all in stock pot to cook. We loved it !!!! The flavour the fire roasted tomatoes adds is wonderful. This stays on our dinner rotation.