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.
Print
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
Keywords: Soup, Vegetarian Soup, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Italian Soup, Gnocchi, Gnocchi Soup, Italian Soup Recipes, Italian Vegetable Soup
So true. Patience, and actually having the time, are two factors that really need to be in everyone’s life, ESPECIALLY if you want to make food that’s good for you. I think you help a lot of people out with these kinds of recipes. People need to see how easy (and delsih) it actually can be.
Oh my goodness, Sonja, you’ve said this perfectly! This secret that we have to orient our life around cooking fresh food in order to enjoy fresh food. That it doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming but that it does require a willingness to tweak our lifestyle. Such a big part of the work I do with clients – helping them find the right ways to fit meal planning and food prep into their new lifestyle. Thanks for your uplifting words and an amazing recipe I’d like to be eating right now!
Whenever I have friends who are intimidated by cooking, I just remind them that it’s a skill like any other. The more you practice it, the better you get. And it’s such a worthwhile skill to learn- you get to feed yourself food that makes you feel good and tastes better than any cereal for dinner can.
This was really good! Perfect comfort food for me to make on my off day. Also, I don’t know if it was the brand of tomatoes that I bought or if I added more pepper than I thought, but the soup had a natural spice to it. I didn’t even need to add the red pepper flakes! I also subbed kale for spinach as that’s what I add laying around the house.
I love gnocchi! Yum! This looks so delicious!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
You guys always inspire me! I’ve been working on the daily fresh food over here despite the hospital hours – so far so good and reading this post keeps me motivated :)
So excited to listen to the next podcast! I went on that lady’s site and she sounds so incredible!!
We made this soup for dinner last night and it was delicious! Everyone gobbled it up! I used fresh gnocchi because that’s what I could find at my store. We all enjoy soups at our house and the gnocchi made this one really special!
★★★★★
This looks delicious! It’s difficult to get hold of fire-roasted tinned tomatoes here in the UK. Is there an ingredient I can throw in with normal tinned tomatoes to create the same effect?
Great question! I would say to find the BEST quality tinned tomatoes you can, and use those. It’s possible you may need to cook the soup a bit longer to develop the flavor; just taste it and cook a bit longer if necessary. Let us know how it goes!
I used non-fire-roasted tinned tomatoes and cooked the soup for about 25 minutes before adding the gnocchi. I can confirm that it was a real success! Really hearty and flavoursome – this is definitely going on the regular weeknight meals list.
I’m just making this soup now, and I have a question/suggestion about the recipe. In the ingredients list, red pepper flakes are included and then they aren’t anywhere in the directions. Where are we supposed to add these? Also, it’s really helpful if recipe ingredients are listed in the order that you use them, that way if you do happen to forget to mention where to use the ingredient, it’s easy to know where it’s supposed to be added. Thanks!
Hi Annie! Good catch — the red pepper flakes were inadvertently omitted in the steps; we’ve corrected this now! And yes, the ingredients are always written in the order in which they are used. Thanks for the note!
This soup was absolutely amazing! I followed all step accordingly except one! Instead of adding the gnocchi to the soup, I portioned out a proper serving size and pan seared it to give the gnocchi some texture! After pan searing the gnocchi, I put it in the bowls and poured the soup on top! An added benefit to this is there is no gnocchi in the pot to become soggy when reheating the left overs! Thank you so much!
★★★★★
I’m generally not a soup fan, but this is delicious! I’m sure it will be on regular rotation this winter. Thanks!
★★★★★