This vegetarian Tuscan white bean soup is a hearty Italian vegetable soup made with an abundance of good-for-you veggies! From zucchini, kale, and carrots to white beans for protein. It’s wholesome, nourishing, and easily customized with your favorite veggies and herbs!

Two white bowls of Tuscan white bean soup in it. The soup is surrounded by fresh herbs, a small bowl of red pepper flakes, and a dark gray napkin all displayed on a tan background.

Everyone needs a good Italian vegetable soup in their recipe box, and this Tuscan white bean soup is one we’ve been making for years!

This recipe has everything but the kitchen sink, which is typical for any rustic Italian soup. It’s rich in colorful vegetables and plenty of herbs to layer in fresh flavor.

Recipe Highlights

A few of the reasons my family loves this soup is because it’s…

WHOLESOME & VEGGIE-FILLED. So many vegetables are packed into this soup, from zucchini, carrots, celery, and kale (to name a few). It’s a fiber-filled bowl of soup, making it a super nourishing meal!

COMFORTING & FEEL-GOOD. This soup is a feel-good comfort food. Each spoonful warming you from the inside out!

EASY TO ADAPT. Another reason we love this soup is it’s easy to modify the recipe to whatever you have on hand! Toss in your favorite vegetables or herbs, and make it your own.

Key Ingredients

The best soups are filled with color and if they’re Italian, such as this one, fresh herbs are a must! This recipe has a handful of fresh ingredients plus some pantry staples needed to prepare it.

See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and exact measurements.

White Beans – You can use cannellini beans, but white navy beans also work!
Zucchinis – green or yellow works!
Carrots -are perfect for vegetable soups because they add a hint of sweetness, cut through any acid or bitterness, and taste delicious.
Onion – I like to use a yellow onion. This creates rich flavor throughout the whole soup!
Celery – This vegetable adds color and is perfect for layering a flavorful soup.
Kale – I like to use kale for leafy greens because it’s quite hearty in texture and wilts perfectly in the soup. Remember to remove the stem since it can be super crunchy and tough.
Vegetable broth – the base of this soup is where the flavor comes from, so use a quality store-bought broth or make your own vegetable broth!
Diced tomatoes – I like to use regular or fire-roasted diced tomatoes for the base of the soup.
Herbs – a good soup needs herbs for fresh flavor! This soup is layered with fresh thyme, basil, and oregano.
Tomato paste – I like to use a little tomato paste to add sweetness and to help the broth thicken.
Red pepper flakes – only a pinch of red pepper flakes is needed to add a hint of heat for flavor!

How to Make This Tuscan White Bean Soup – Step-by-Step

A collage of photos showing steps for how to make vegetable soup. The first photo is a wooden spoon stirring diced onions, carrots, and celery in a black cast iron pot. The second photo is zucchini being stirred into the onions and celery. The third photo is the same pot with the sautéed vegetables and chopped herbs in it.

1

Sauté the onions and celery. In a large pot with olive oil, sauté the diced onions, carrots, and celery with a pinch of salt. Cook until soft (about 4-5 minutes).
2

Add the zucchini and garlic. Next, add the zucchini and minced garlic, and cook for another 3 minutes.
3

Add the herbs and spices. Stir in the chopped herbs, thyme sprigs, and red pepper flakes.

A collage of three photos showing how to make vegetable soup. The first photo is step four, showing the diced tomatoes and white beans added to a cast iron pot with sautéed vegetables in it. The second photo is broth being poured into the pot with all the ingredients in it. And the third image is the final step which shows the ingredients being stirred together.

4

Add the white beans and tomatoes. Next, add the white beans, tomatoes, and tomato paste.
5

Pour in the broth. Then add the broth with salt and pepper.
6

Stir and simmer. Finally, stir the ingredient together and simmer the soup for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. When finished, shot the heat off and stir in the chopped kale. Let it cook in the hot soup for about 5 minutes, then taste, adjust with more salt if needed and then serve with additional fresh basil!

Recipe Adaptions

More veggies you can add. This recipe is really easy to adapt with different vegetables! Add green beans, peas, garbanzo beans, green cabbage, corn, or diced potatoes for heartiness.

Add different greens. Instead of kale, you can use spinach or baby kale.

Try adding a parmesan rind for flavor. One of my favorite ways to add depth of flavor to a soup is using a parmesan cheese rind to simmer with the soup and infuse the richest taste. The rind is the hard outer shell that parmesan cheese is aged in, and it won’t melt in the soup but gets soft and releases so much deep flavor! It’s a must-try.

How to Freeze This Soup & Keep Leftovers Fresh

How to freeze vegetable soup. Ensure the soup has completely cooled before transferring it to a freezer-friendly ziplock bag or container. If you are freezing the soup in bags, remove all the air after the soup has been transferred and lay it flat. Freeze for up to 2-3 months.

After freezing. Thaw the soup at room temperature for several hours or in the fridge overnight when ready to use. The time it takes to defrost will depend on how much soup is frozen. To quickly defrost, place the frozen container or bag in cold water and let it sit for several hours. Then reheat in a pot until the soup is hot.

Keep leftovers fresh. This soup is best kept in an airtight container to preserve its freshness and chill in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

What to Serve it With

Even though this vegetable soup is so delicious all on its own, we love pairing it with some side dishes to complete the meal! Such as…

Pizza. Who doesn’t love a pizza and soup combo? It’s the best. Use your favorite frozen pizza, or make our 10-minute naan pizza or crispy cast iron skillet pizza! You can’t go wrong with either.

Bread. If you don’t have pizza, we love to serve this with Drew’s homemade sourdough, our cinnamon raisin bread, or cranberry walnut bread! You can also serve it with crusty Italian bread.

Salad. Even though there is a ton of vegetables in this soup, you could still pair it with a salad! Such as our Tuscan artichoke salad or this Panzanella salad.

A cast iron pot with tuscan vegetable soup and a wooden spoon in it.

More Italian Soups to Try

If you love this vegetable soup full of Italian flavors, you might also enjoy our Italian Minestrone soup, Pasta e Fagioli, or our Tuscan Kale and Chickpea soup!