Beef minestrone soup

Beef minestrone soup is a hearty and comforting soup that will warm you up during these last chilly days of winter. Packed with succulent beef, tender noodles and nutritious vegetables, this soup is both tasty and satisfying.

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What is minestrone soup?

Originating in Italy and deriving its name from the Italian word “minestra” meaning soup, minestrone is a thick soup typically prepared with vegetables and beans cooked in a tomato base. To create a more substantial meal, beef can be incorporated into the dish, while noodles or rice are commonly used to add thickness to the soup.

When it comes to making minestrone soup, there’s no fixed recipe to follow. Instead, the beauty of this soup lies in its flexibility, as it can be easily customized based on the ingredients available in your pantry or refrigerator at any given time.

If you don’t want to add beef, you can simply leave it out, and perhaps add a few more vegetables to compensate.

When I’m in a hurry, I prefer using my Ninja pressure cooker to make this soup, because it significantly reduces the cooking time. However, if you prefer to use your stove or slow cooker you could do so as well. I’ve included instructions for all three techniques below.

You can skip the next sections and scroll directly to the recipe, but I would recommend reading through them, as there are lots of hints and tips, including different cooking methods, which you may find helpful.

What you will need

Equipment

I used the pressure cooker function on my Ninja multi-cooker, but you could use a slow cooker or even a large saucepan on the stove.

For cutting up the vegetables you will also need a sharp knife and a chopping board.

Ingredients

The quantities given in this recipe will make a pot of soup which will be more than enough for 6 people. You can either cut down on the quantities and make a smaller pot of soup, or you can freeze the leftovers for another day.

**You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this beef minestrone soup on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

Shin beef – comes from the lower leg of the cow and can be tough in texture and thus requires either slow cooking or pressure cooking to bring out its tenderness. Once cooked properly, shin beef offers a rich, savoury taste and a tender, gelatinous texture due to the breakdown of collagen during the cooking process. It is an ideal cut meat to use for soups and stews.

Vegetables – you will need about 6 cups of vegetables in total (one cup per person) and you can use whatever vegetables you prefer. I’ve used potatoes, carrots, green beans, celery, tomatoes and leeks. The vegetables should be cut into approximately 1cm (or just under half an inch) pieces.

Passata – this is simply tomatoes that have been pulverised and then sieved to remove any bits of skin and pips. In the UK it is found alongside tinned tomatoes in the supermarket and comes either in cardboard cartons or glass bottles.

Beans – definitely worth adding! You can use dried beans and soak them overnight and add them to the pressure cooker with the meat. Or you can do what I did and use a tin of mixed beans which I just added (along with the liquid in the tin) towards the end of the cooking time.

Mixed herbs (sometimes called Italian herbs) – this is normally a mixture of oregano, rosemary and thyme, but depending on the brand, may also contain marjoram and basil.

Bay leaves – optional, but do add another element of flavour. You should remove the bay leaves before serving.

Macaroni – the shape of the pasta isn’t too important, but I would recommend using small shapes. I’ve used small elbow macaroni, but you could use small shells or even orzo.

Stock pots – for adding extra flavour instead of just adding water to the soup. I used vegetable stock pots, but you could use beef flavour too.

Salt and pepper – for seasoning (to your own taste). I like to use freshly ground black pepper.

What to do

Preparation

Start off by preparing the vegetables:

• Peel the potatoes and carrots, and top and tail the beans. Slice the leeks in half lengthwise and rinse them under cold running water to remove any bits of grit.
• Cut the vegetables into approximately 1cm (just under half an inch) pieces, and slice the leeks into narrow semi-circles.
• Place the vegetables in a bowl of cold water until you are ready to use them.
• Cut the tomatoes into small pieces and place them in a separate dish.

Pressure cooker (Ninja) instructions

Allowing for time to release the pressure, this should take no longer than 45 minutes.

Please note these times are for a Ninja pressure cooker – other pressure cookers may take a few minutes longer.

Slow cooker instructions

This will take between 6 and 8 hours depending on the heat setting.

Place all the ingredients into the slow cooker and season with salt and pepper. Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 6 to 7 hours.

If you prefer your macaroni to be less well cooked, you can add the macaroni 2 hours before the soup is ready (on low heat) or 1 hour on high. Alternatively, you can cook the macaroni in a separate pot on the stove (according to the instructions on the packet) and stir it into the soup just before serving.

Remove the meat from the slow cooker and shred it, then stir it back into the soup.

Stovetop instructions

This should take about 4.5 hours.

Place the shin into a large saucepan. Add the stock pots, herbs, bay leaves, passasta, 2 cups of water, and the chopped tomatoes and season with salt and black pepper. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down to a strong simmer.

Cover the pan with a lid and leave for 4 hours until the meat is tender. Keep your eye on the soup and if it starts to lose too much liquid top up with extra stock.

Remove the meat from the saucepan and shred it, then return it to the soup.

Add the chopped vegetables and macaroni and continue to cook for another 30 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

To thicken the soup

If you prefer a thicker soup, you can thicken it by stirring in a slurry of one tablespoon of cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons of water. Depending on how thick you would like the soup to be you may not need all the cornflour mixture.

On the other hand, if the soup has thickened too much and you prefer a thinner soup, you can thin it down with extra stock.

To serve

Ladle the soup into bowls and optionally top it with chopped parsley and grated parmesan cheese. For a more substantial meal, serve the soup with crusty bread rolls to soak up the delicious gravy. Here are 2 of my most popular crusty bread roll recipes that you may like to try:

• Portuguese rolls
• German brotchen

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Beef minestrone soup FAQ

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Other recipes

If you enjoyed this recipe, you may like to try some of my other soup recipes too:

• Beef vegetable winter soup – handed down to me more than 50 years ago by my mother-in-law, this soup is crammed with tender beef and lots of root vegetables, celery, leeks and tomatoes.
• Meatball soup – juicy meatballs in a delicious vegetable and tomato soup. Comfort food doesn’t get much better than this.
• Thick split pea and ham hock soup – use up any leftover ham hocks to make this deliciously thick pea soup.

The recipe