Name: Beef Minestrone Soup Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 240 min
Total time: 250 min
Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef; 14.5 ounces diced tomatoes (1 can, do not drain); 2 cups carrots (chopped); 2 cups potatoes (chopped); 1½ cups celery (chopped); 1 yellow onion (diced); 3 teaspoons minced garlic; 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; 4 cups beef stock; 2 cups water; 3 cups tomato juice; 15 ounces red kidney beans (1 can (drained and rinsed)); 15 ounces cannellini beans (1 can, (drained and rinsed)); 1½ cups zucchini (diced); 1 cup ditalini pasta (uncooked); 15 ounces green beans (1 can, (drained))

Recipe Ingredient Notes

To make our beef minestrone soup, you need the following ingredients:

Ground beef

Diced tomatoes

Carrots

Potatoes

Celery

Yellow onion

Garlic

Italian seasoning

Salt

Pepper

Beef stock

Water

Tomato juice

Red kidney benas

Cannellini beans

Zucchini

Ditalini pasta

Green beans

How to Make Beef Minestrone Soup Recipe

In a medium skillet, brown ground beef until completely cooked.

Place your ground beef, diced tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, celery, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper into your slow cooker.

Add in beef stock, water, and tomato juice.

Cover and cook on low heat 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.

After cooking time is up, add in red kidney beans, cannellini beans, zucchini, pasta, and green beans. Cook on high heat for an additional 15 minutes or until pasta is tender.

Instant Pot Modification

To make this recipe in the Instant Pot, there are a few modifications. The recipe is just a little too big for my 6-quart Instant Pot. Here are the changes you would make:

Instead of adding all 4 cups of beef broth, only add 2 before it cooks! When it is done pressuring and cooking, go ahead and all the other 2 cups of beef broth in.

Completely omit the 3 cups of water. I feel it gives it more flavor and makes it more of a chunky soup!

Use pre-cooked lean ground beef.

You are going to add EVERYTHING into your pressure cooker at once. Put it in your pressure cooker and push the manual button or pressure cook button for 6 minutes. When it is done, let it release on its own for about 15 minutes and then turn the knob to venting. Add 2 more cups of beef broth and serve with salt and pepper if desired.

Recipe Notes

I don’t know about you, but all the different types of beef can be a little overwhelming at the store. It gets a little frustrating looking at all of them and they all look slightly different, but the meat could make or break dinner. If you are anything like me, you need exact names. Here are a few different types of beef I have used in this recipe, and they all tasted amazing.

Lean Ground Beef. Ground Beef is definitely preferred in this recipe I go for as lean of ground beef as the store offers. Many stores carry ground beef that is 80 percent lean 20 percent fat. I always try to find a beef that is 10 percent fat, or lower.

Ground Turkey. If you are looking for a lighter option, you could also use a ground turkey.

Stew Beef. Many beef packages will say right on them, a stew beef. We also recommend using a boneless chuck roast.

Explore More Delicious Soup Recipes

Explore our collection of soup recipes made in the stovetop, slow cooker or Instant Pot. For more soup inspiration, check out our full list of soups.

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Questions & Reviews

Kasey says:

Why do you wait on the beans and zucchini? Making this now and thinking I’m just going to throw them in...
Cyd says:

The beans just need to heat through. The zucchini will go mushy if it cooks all day. It doesn't need to cook for hours. 15 minutes should be plenty of cooking time. If it needs a little longer, that is fine. Just make sure it's cooked through. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions! Have a great day!
Kasey says:

Thank you!!! Will wait:) it’s smells good!!
Amy says:

Just made this today and the family loved it. However, the soup thicken so much after the pasta cooked that there is no broth. What should I use to add more broth without changing the taste?
Cyd says:

Did you add the pasta at the very end of the cooking time? You could add a little more beef stock and water if it was still too dry.
Becky says:

Amazing! This is so easy to put together the night before, cook all day the next day on lowest setting, then come home, turn the heat up, ad the last ingredients, and by the time ounce changed from work and taken the pets out, the soup is ready. Be warned: it makes a ton! My six quarter slow cooker was full almost to the brim! I had plenty of leftovers to split with my bf.
Sharon says:

If I’m using a slow cooker do I still use 2 cups of the broth while it cooks and add the the last 2 at the end of add the whole 4 cups while it cooks
Cyd says:

This recipe is for Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup. Scroll over the instant pot version of the recipe. The one you need is further down on the blog post. It's all there with directions.
Kayla says:

Can I freeze this soup? It makes a lot for my smaller family, so I'm hoping to freeze it? Would I freeze it without the noodles?
Cyd says:

You can freeze this soup just fine. We do it all the time. Then just thaw and reheat!
Tara says:

Thanks for the recipe! For the Instant Pot recipe, would six minutes of manual time be enough when using boneless chuck roast? I was also thinking about using the meat/stew function for 40 minutes for the chuck roast. However, I’m worried that the pasta will be overdone. What do you recommend? Thanks!!
Addie says:

Your printable recipe shows 3 cups of tomato sauce, but your directions say tomato juice. I double checked your instant pot recipe and it has tomato juice, so I think this recipe needs to be updated.
Momma Cyd says:

Thanks for catching that. It has been updated.
Winston F Reed says:

I will try this recipe using my slow cooker. However, I am leary of using 3 cups of tomato juice...seems like a lot of tomato. May increase the beef broth use less tomato juice. Will let you know how it turns out.
Lisa G says:

This recipe was really good. However, I think the veggie ingredients need to be reduce as they seemed to overtake the liquid in the finished product. Also I added potatoes at the end with the beans as they don't take long to cook. I think follow recipe for 8 servings except in the final veggies and reduce that by half.