Keto Minestrone Soup: A Hearty and Healthy Low-Carb Delight

They say soup is good for the soul, and this keto minestrone soup is a testament to that! This low-carb twist on the classic Italian favorite is packed with delicious flavors and is perfect for a chilly day. Unlike traditional minestrone, which often includes beans, pasta, and starchy vegetables, this keto-friendly version swaps them out for low-carb alternatives, making it a seriously satisfying and healthy meal.

What Makes This Keto Minestrone Soup Special?

This minestrone soup is made with a delicious medley of low-carb vegetables, such as zucchini, celery, onions, and a small amount of carrots. The recipe uses lupini beans as a tasty replacement for high-carb great northern beans or kidney beans. The base for this vegetable broth soup is made from canned whole tomatoes, and the soup gets a delicious umami flavor from the rind of parmesan cheese.

The Star Ingredient: Lupini Beans

Lupini beans, or lupin beans, are nutritious, low-carb, yellow legumes. These beans are considered a ‘cardioprotective’ food because of their health benefits for your heart and your stomach. Lupini beans are a popular replacement for beans on a low carb diet. These beans are high in fiber, meaning they are low in net carbs. In fact, there are only 2 grams of net carbs in 1/4th cup of lupini beans. Of course, if you don’t have access to lupin beans, you can omit them completely or if you are not concerned about keeping your carbs low, then use kidney or northern beans.

Customizing Your Keto Minestrone Soup

The best part about making this minestrone soup recipe is you can customize it by adding all of your favorite low-carb vegetables. Besides the vegetable mix that are mentioned above, you can add basil or bell pepper for a more aromatic soup. You can even add cauliflower, summer squash, green bean, broccoli, and asparagus for more texture and flavor! Depending on what vegetables or legumes you have access to, the soup will probably change every time you make it.

Recipe Variations and Substitutions

Make this minestrone soup your own. Here are some substitution ideas:

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• Lupini Beans: Besides swapping in your favorite low-carb veggies, you can also omit the lupini beans if you have difficulty finding them in the grocery stores. If you can't find lupini beans, you can substitute them with canned white beans or chickpeas for a similar texture, but keep in mind that this will slightly change the carb content.
• Tomatoes: You can decrease the amount of tomatoes in your minestrone soup to lower the carb count. Add more chicken broth or water in place of the tomatoes. If you want to use fresh tomatoes rather than canned, that is definitely an option. About 2 large diced tomatoes can be substituted for one can of diced tomatoes.
• Parmesan Cheese Rind: If you don't have a parmesan cheese rind, you can add 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese directly to the soup for flavor. Just make sure to adjust the cooking time to prevent it from clumping.
• Pasta: Some minestrone soup recipes have pasta in them. If you don’t want to use regular noodles since they are high in carbohydrates, you can use keto pasta instead.
• Meat: Make this hearty soup with ground beef, Italian sausage, or frozen meatballs if time is short. Cook beef, onion, and garlic in a skillet. You can swap out the chicken breast with chicken thighs if you prefer. You can also use ground beef or ground turkey or even ground pork. Smoky chorizo, rich broth, and fresh veggies make this a seriously satisfying bowl of comfort.

Essential Ingredients for a Flavorful Keto Minestrone

• Onion & Carrot: These add sweetness and depth.
• Chorizo & Bacon: These bring rich, smoky flavors. Use pancetta or smoked turkey bacon for variations. Using fresh chorizo is an option.
• Tomatoes & Tomato Paste: Essential for a classic minestrone taste.
• Smoked Paprika: A game-changer!
• Fresh Herbs: Using fresh herbs, if you have them, makes this low-carb minestrone soup extra tasty. You can add up to 2 tablespoon of fresh thyme and rosemary if you love it herby.
• Unsalted butter: If you’re not vegan or following a plant-based diet, using a good quality butter will add amazing flavor to this keto minestrone.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Here's a basic recipe based on the information provided:

1. Add bacon to a large stock pot or Dutch oven. Cook over medium-high heat until cooked but not crispy.
2. Add diced onions, carrots and celery to the pot and continue cooking until almost tender.
3. Add chicken broth or vegetable broth, 1 teaspoon salt, zucchini, tomatoes and parmesan rind.
4. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Let cook uncovered until vegetables are tender (at least 20 minutes).
5. Add cauliflower rice, lupini beans and cook for 5 minutes.
6. Stir in spinach leaves and add salt & pepper for taste.
7. Stir until spinach has wilted into the soup.
8. Remove rind and serve.
9. While soup is simmering, fry off extra diced bacon and chorizo sausage meatballs. Serve the soup topped with bacon and chorizo.

Thermomix Method

1. Add oil, onion, carrot, bacon to mixer; Cook 10 min/120°C/reverse/stir
2. Add remaining ingredients; Cook 20 min/120℃/reverse stir

Conventional Method

1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium to low heat and fry onion, bacon and carrot
2. Add chorizo meatballs and fry until lightly golden
3. Add rest of ingredients, turn the temp down low and cover with lid. Simmer for 20 minutes

Tips for Enhancing Flavor

To add extra flavor to this keto chicken, here’s some of my top tips:

• Use a really good concentrated chicken stock. I like to make my own and really concentrate it down for hours, or make in the instant pot.
• Good seasoning - a good quality salt like Redmond sea salt or Pink Himalayan salt and seasoned well. Top with fresh herbs and a good drizzle of olive oil.

Storage and Reheating Instructions

Store any leftover minestrone soup in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This keto soup is also freezer friendly. Simple store in a ziploc bag or freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw in the refrigerator the night before or defrost in the microwave for a few minutes before reheating on the stove top. You can even reheat your soup in the instant pot. Just make sure you add a 1/2 cup of water if your soup is still frozen just so you don’t get a burn notice. Keep leftover keto minestrone soup in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days and reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave. Freeze portions in zippered bags for up to 4 months.

Make Ahead and Freeze

Yes! A BIG yes! Chill the soup overnight in the fridge. Pour it into freezer-safe containers in single or family-size portions. Date the top with a Sharpie, and freeze for up to three months (or longer). To reheat, thaw in the fridge overnight, and heat it slowly on the stovetop. Or, transfer it to a microwave-safe dish and microwave it in 1-minute intervals until it is heated through.

Serving Suggestions

This dish is pretty much a meal-in-a-bowl, but you can sneak some extra veggies into your day (and some extra fiber) by enjoying a salad with this dish.

Read also: Keto Calorie Counting: A Detailed Guide

Spring Minestrone Soup

While winter is definitely the time when soups prevail, you still may be craving soup on those cooler spring days. However, spring also brings lots of fresh veggies to the table that you may also want to use. That is when you should give this spring minestrone soup a try. It is loaded with fresh, keto vegetables while still being a warm and filling meal option. To top it all off, not only is the recipe perfect for the keto diet but it is also vegetarian! The main vegetables in this soup recipe are kale, asparagus, and artichoke hearts. When crafting our soup, we tried to stick with vegetables that you would find in the early spring and, of course, are also great when you are on a keto diet. Each of these veggies fit that bill. If you want to swap out any of these veggies for a different keto option, you definitely can. Use spinach in place of kale, broccoli or cauliflower instead of artichoke hearts and green beans rather than asparagus. Of course, as is true with any alterations you make to a recipe, these changes will affect the macros of the recipe. The base of the soup is crafted with canned, diced tomatoes as well as vegetable broth. Our spring minestrone soup is really quite simple to make, sautéing a few seasonings, adding a broth, and then stirring in some vegetables is essentially what the recipe amounts to. It is definitely a recipe that anyone will have success making! Serve the soup while hot or put it in airtight containers to freeze for a later date (skip adding the parmesan at the end if you are freezing!).

Keto Beef Minestrone Soup

Keto beef minestrone soup is recreation of a popular minestrone soup in keto version with chunks of beef. Beef makes this keto soup more nourishing, rich in flavor and great keto family friendly dinner soup. Usually, I make a huge batch of beef broth each week. Sometimes, I have to make it twice per week! We eat the broth in soups or reheat and drink it. My children often ask for a cup of broth. Procedure of the onion caramelization is a base of every rich and tasty soup. I believe that this step in combination with a good beef broth is the key of this soup deliciousness. You won't find more tasty recipe for this type of soup in the entire Internet!

Instructions

1. Melt olive oil or lard and sauté onion until golden brown or caramelized.
2. When meat chunks become brown on the edges, add slices of carrot and stir. I use one medium carrot to keep the carbs low.
3. I love to keep this soup very low in carbs to be keto friendly. Because of that adding potato and similar starchy veggies or flour is not possible. However, I have one secret ingredient that I use often to thicken my soups and stews. It goes great with beef, and that is unsweetened cocoa or cacao. Cacao makes it thick and elevates the beef flavor. So, when making this soup, add 1 TBS of unsweetened cacao.
4. When meat is cooked, add the rest of the veggies like zucchini, green beans, spinach and celery stalks, all cut into small cubes. You can cook this beefy minestrone soup in the instant pot or in a slow cooker too!

Detailed Recipe

1. In a large pot on the stove (Dutch oven) heat the olive oil or lard and cook diced onion until golden brown and caramelized.
2. When onion caramelized, add minced garlic and beef cut into small cubes. Cook and occasionally stir until meat browned on the edges.
3. Add crushed tomatoes, carrot cut in slices, broth, salt, pepper, cacao and other herbs and spices, stir and cook on high heat until it starts to boil.

Alternate Method

1. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil to a heavy bottom pot and turn the heat on to medium-high. Add the stewing beef that’s been cut into smaller chunks, and brown in batches if necessary.
2. Add the onion, garlic, and celery and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent.
3. While this is cooking, prepare the kale. Wash it thoroughly and remove the leaves from the stems. Roughly chop it.
4. Put the low-sodium beef broth, a whole 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes, tomato paste and kale into the pot with the beef, onions, and carrots.
5. Simmer over low heat, covered, for about 20 minutes or until the beef is tender.
6. Add the remaining veggies and your favorite Italian seasoning blend, and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes.
7. Season with 1 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper, or to taste. If you use no-salt added broth and diced tomatoes to this keto-friendly Beefy Minestrone Soup, you'll need to add a bit more salt.

Keto Chicken Minestrone Soup

This incredibly flavorsome Keto Chicken Minestrone Soup will be a firm favorite in your low-carb soup repertoire. Minestrone is a thick Italian soup made traditionally with vegetables in a tomato stock. There’s no one recipe for what makes an authentic minestrone, so you’ll find lots of different variations. This recipe is tailored to a keto diet using just low-carb vegetables, konjac penne to replace the pasta and some roasted chicken for extra protein. Using a store bought already cooked chicken makes this soup come together very quickly!

Instructions

1. Add 3 tbsp of olive oil to a large soup pan.
2. Fry the onions, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower and celery for 5 - 6 minutes on a medium heat.
3. Add the garlic and herbs for 1 further minute.
4. Add the tomato puree, canned tomatoes, stock, salt and pepper.
5. Simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Remove 3/4 cup of minestrone soup and place in a jug. Blend with a hand blender and then add back into the soup pan. This will make your low-carb minestrone super tasty without needing a gum or thickener.
7. Stir and add the chicken, greens and penne and cook for 2 - 3 more minutes until everything is cooked to your liking.
8. Season to taste and adjust the amount of stock based on how thick you like it.

Other Keto Soup Recipes

For more keto soup recipes; try our Clear Chicken Soup, Pea and Ham Soup, or Easy Chicken and Bacon Soup.

A Note on Nutritional Information

Nutritional information for this recipe is provided as a courtesy and is calculated based on available online ingredient information. It is only an approximate value. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site cannot be guaranteed. Erythritol carbs (sugar substitutes) are not included in the carbohydrate counts as they have been shown not to impact blood sugar, and they have zero calories and zero carbs. You should independently calculate nutritional information on your own and not rely on our data.

Read also: Magnesium Supplements for Keto

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