Seriously Good Vegetable Soup
This vegetable soup recipe is seriously so good! It's easy to make, and full of healthy vegetables and fresh flavor. There's nothing "blah" about it!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 10, 2024
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You know how most vegetable soups are pretty tired and “blah”? Not this one! This hearty homemade vegetable soup is full of fresh, wholesome flavors.
I’m excited to share this vegetable soup recipe with you. It’s honestly the best I’ve ever had, and I hope you’ll agree. You just might have all the ingredients you’ll need to make this easy soup on hand already.
I can think of so many reasons to make this soup. Warm up with a big bowl of veggie soup on a cold day. Make it for someone who’s under the weather. My husband has a cold and it’s snowing outside as I type, so this soup is just what we need right now.
Prepare a batch and you’ll have a healthy side dish ready to go for the rest of the week. This soup is a great way to lighten up heavier meals, especially as we get into the holidays. Did I mention that it’s vegetarian, vegan and gluten free for all to enjoy?
Vegetable Options for Vegetable Soup
This homemade vegetable soup is versatile by design, so you can enjoy it from fall through winter. We’ll use onion, carrots and celery as a base.
We’ll also add two cups of seasonal vegetables to make this soup more hearty and interesting. Choose from veggies you have on hand, or grab your favorites at the store. Any of these will work:
- Sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- Butternut squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- Green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch long segments
- Bell pepper, chopped
- Cauliflower, cut into very small bite-sized pieces
- Zucchini or yellow squash, chopped
- Fresh greens: Kale, collard greens, chard, or spinach
How to Make the Best Vegetable Soup
We’ll use several simple techniques to build flavor as we cook this soup. Here’s how:
1) Start with the veggies.
We’ll sauté chopped onion, celery, carrots and seasonal vegetables in olive oil, with some salt. This softens them up and enhances their flavors. Adding salt during different stages of the cooking process builds more flavor than simply adding it all at the end.
2) Add fresh minced garlic, curry powder, and dried thyme.
Sautéing these ingredients for about 1 minute wakes up their flavors, but isn’t long enough to risk burning the garlic (burnt garlic tastes awful).
Curry powder is the secret to making this soup so delicious. We aren’t adding much. You probably won’t be able to pinpoint the flavor, but it adds some subtle intrigue and warmth to this soup. I’ve also used curry powder in my lentil soup and chickpea noodle soup as well, and it always works like a charm.
3) Add canned diced tomatoes with their juices.
We’ll cook them all together for a couple of minutes to reduce any tinny flavors. I used fire-roasted diced tomatoes for these photos, but regular diced tomatoes were just as good. I always recommend using Muir Glen brand of tomatoes because they taste the best and come in BPA-free cans.
4) Almost done—add some vegetable broth, water, and more flavorings.
Vegetable broth keeps this soup vegetarian/vegan. We’ll also add bay leaves, red pepper flakes, and a little more salt. If you’re sensitive to spice, you can reduce or omit the red pepper flakes. If you love spice like me, you might even want to double the amount at the end (add to taste). Regardless, we’ll let the soup gently simmer for 25 minutes so the flavors can meld together.
5) Add chopped fresh greens and finally, some fresh lemon juice.
Lastly, we’ll add chopped greens for health bonus points, and simmer for 5 minutes to soften them up. Before serving, we’ll brighten up the soup with a big squeeze of lemon juice (one of my other go-to soup tricks) and add another splash of olive oil for rich flavor. Taste the soup before and after these additions, and you’ll notice a big difference! Finally, season to taste with salt and pepper, as necessary.
Watch How to Make Vegetable Soup
Please let me know how this soup turns out in the comments. I love hearing from you, and your feedback encourages other readers to try the recipe.
Craving more hearty, healthy, meatless soups this season? Me, too. Here are a few more great options:
- Classic Minestrone Soup
- Best Lentil Soup
- Chickpea Noodle Soup
- Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Pasta and Beans Soup)
- Quinoa Vegetable Soup with Kale
- Sweet Potato, Kale and Chickpea Soup
Don’t miss the hearty soups in my cookbook, Love Real Food. They’re some of my favorites!
Seriously Good Vegetable Soup
This vegetable soup recipe is seriously so good! It’s easy to make, and full of veggies and fresh flavor. If you’re feeing under the weather or just wanting to lighten up your meals, this soup is the answer. Recipe yields 6 bowls of soup.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 cups chopped seasonal vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, green beans, butternut squash, potatoes, bell pepper, zucchini or yellow squash
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, divided, to taste
- 6 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon curry powder
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
- 4 cups (32 ounces) vegetable broth
- 2 cups water
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, reduce or omit if sensitive to spice
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 cups chopped kale or collard greens or chard (thick ribs removed), or spinach
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Warm 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the chopped onion, carrot, celery, seasonal vegetables and ½ teaspoon of the salt. Cook, stirring often, until the onion has softened and is turning translucent, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add the garlic, curry powder and thyme. Cook until fragrant while stirring frequently, about 1 minute. Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juices and cook for a few more minutes, stirring often.
- Pour in the broth and water. Add ½ teaspoon more salt, 2 bay leaves and the red pepper flakes. Season generously with freshly ground black pepper. Raise the heat and bring the mixture to a boil, then partially cover the pot and reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
- Cook for 25 minutes, then remove the lid and add the chopped greens. Continue simmering for 5 minutes or more, until the greens have softened to your liking.
- Remove the pot from heat and remove the bay leaves. Stir in the lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Taste and season with more salt, pepper and/or red pepper flakes. (You might need up to ½ teaspoon more salt, depending on your vegetable broth and your personal preferences.) Divide into bowls and enjoy.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my quinoa vegetable soup and lentil soup.
Storage suggestions: This soup keeps well in the refrigerator for about 4 days. It freezes and defrosts well if you want to freeze extra portions for later!
Recommended equipment: I’m convinced that everything I cook in my Dutch oven (affiliate link) comes out extra delicious.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This is by far the best vegetable soup ever. My search is over.
Wonderful to hear, Lyne! Thank you for your review.
This is SO good!! I’m not a curry fan but that little bit just makes the flavor amazing.. it’s not over powering at all. It’s good on its own just as it is but I wanted a creamy soup so I added a half can of coconut full fat milk and it’s really good that way too. The veggies I added was zucchini, cauliflower, red bell pepper and sweet potato… along with what was listed in the recipe. Thank you for this!
You’re welcome, Kim!
This is such a good soup base! You leave such room for variety! I add the heartier seasonal veggies like potatoes or squash early in the process then add veggies like green beans or zucchini later. I rotate between some version of this, your lentil soup, and minestrone for my cold weather lunches! I usually make a big batch, put a few servings in mason jars to reheat throughout the week and freeze the rest. All of these three freeze very well (except the pasta in the minestrone, I usually omit that when freezing). Thank you for sharing these delicious recipes!
You’re welcome, Mel! Thank you for your review.
Delicious and healthy! Love this soup.
Great to hear, Malinda!
This is the 3rd of your recipes I have tried, and it does not disappoint! Lovely flavour, I used broccoli as one of the veggies simple because i love broccoli and it was so very good. Once the soup was ready, I removed a couple of spoonfuls and set aside. I then used a stick blender to make the soup smooth and thick, and once I was happy with that consistency, I put the ‘chunky’ spoonful’s back in and stirred in before serving, I just like my soup like that. Eaten for lunch with fresh bread with heapings of butter – DELICIOUS!! Thank you.
You’re welcome, Sian! Thank you for your review.
Sooooo good
The soup is amazing!
I’m happy to hear you loved it, Jenny!
I have made this veggie soup recipe about 10 times! So yummy trying different veggies and so good for my family and I.
I love to hear that, Sheila!
Hi, Kathryn.
Could you please let me know how many Calories are in your Vegetable Soup as I have to count my calories each day?
Thanks so much.
Deirdre
Hi Deirdre! The nutritional information is below the notes section of the recipe. You will need to click to expand.
Good
Would asparagus work in this soup? Would we need to adjust any of the seasonal veg directions for it? We’re still getting a lot from our farmer’s market and looking for different ways to use it to keep things interesting!
It wouldn’t likely need as much time so you could add it at the end. Let me know what you think when you try it!
Great soup. I like the cumin spice idea and the lemon juice. I added a 19 Oz can of chick peas bc didn’t have any kale or spinach. Want to make double next time! I only used1 cup of my favourite tomato sauce instead of 28 ozs of diced canned tomatoes since didnt have diced tomatoes… therefore I added 2 c extra broth. I used 1 c beef broth and 3 cups water with a cube and a half of chicken bouillon. And the water… Next time will have the exact ingredients on hand. Thank you for a great recipe..
Just awesome!
What I love about this recipe is the title! Then I just google it and voila! I started making this in the pandemic I believe. I was astounded how a half teaspoon of curry powder could add magic to a recipe. We are trying to healthy up our lives so this the perfect addition to our summer of fresh fruits!
I love to hear that, Kat! Thank you for your review.
This has become my “go-to” vegetable soup recipe. It’s my husbands favorite and it gives me an excuse to clean out the refrigerator and freezer. It’s a win, win if you ask me.
Hello Kate,
Do I use 2 cups for EACH vegetable?
Hi Kay, it will be two cups total of what you would like to use. I hope you love it!
I can make good soup, but still check online for adaptations to match whatever I have in the kitchen. The hundreds of 5 star likes on this recipe stopped me, so I made it essestially as written. Curry? I was skeptical about that, but went for it anyway.
O M G !!
After the flavors melded, that little half teaspoon of curry was amazing! I did add half teaspoon corn starch to slightly thicken the broth, and stirred in 1/4 cup tiny fideo pasta. All I could do while eating this soup was “mmmmmm”. Indeed, this is seriously good vegetable soup. Thanks!! I’m sold!
Hooray! That’s great to hear, Lucy.
Another fantastic soup recipe. I can’t decide which one I like the best.
Yum! I cooked for longer than was recommended. My veggies just don’t seem to soften so quick… Went heavy on the lemon and used whizzed up tomatoes instead of canned diced tomatoes. Do people actually read these? Lol..thank you for the awesome recipe!
Absolutely delicious! Followed the recipe to the tee and it was just devine. Healthy, nutritious, hearty, comforting, warming, fulfilling, what more can I say! Sensational! Thank you for sharing this yummy recipe.
You’re welcome, Cheryl!
Thank you for a great, healthy recipe! Have just made it with cauliflower, beans and broccoli as the seasonal veg and cabbage for the greens (added a little earlier to cook through). Reduced the water a little to allow for the high water content of cabbage and increased the curry powder just a bit. So delicious! I have the same Dutch oven you use, and totally agree it makes everything taste better. This is definitely my staple veggie soup recipe from now on!
I have used a lot of Cookie and Kate recipes and loved them, but not this one. I am glad I only made a half batch. The curry powder didn’t complement the flavors very well, and although I followed the recipe, the flavor was lackluster. I think I will try the minestrone on her website next time. .
Wow! Actually posted a comment a couple of days ago saying that it was lacking flavor and I didn’t care for the curry. But after a couple of days in the refrigerator, I tried it a second time today. Fantastic! I think the flavors just needed to meld. I will be making it again. Thanks!
You’re welcome, Sue!
Unbelievably good soup. I was searching for a vegetarian soup to cook for my neighbour, and stumbled across this recipe. This was so easy to make and taste divine. It was filling and so healthy! Love this!
Happy to hear you enjoyed it, Jezsica!
This is the second recipe of yours that I’ve made and I’ll definitely be making more! Great recipe, easy, adaptable and scrumptious.
Best vegetable soup EVER. Fill my Dutch oven up so that I can freeze it for lunches!
Great to hear, Mindy!
Hi this sounds amazing! Can i use broccoli & cauliflower?
Sure, you can try it.
I’m still a teen and was struggling so hard with what to make for dinner and this was truly a lifesaver and super easy to make for a teen like me as well. Thank you soooo much for this recipes.
I was skeptical about adding curry to vegetable soup, but it really made it fantastic (without tasting like Indian food, which I love but didn’t want for this recipe). It froze well too. This is my new go-to veggie soup recipe!
I love to hear that, Reg!
Delicious! I pretty much followed the recipe; except I didn’t have any greens on-hand. My added seasonal vegetables were some sweet peppers, fresh green beans, baby potatoes, and fresh corn. I had to add more liquid since I added a lot of vegetables. That little bit of curry sure added some wonderful flavor. Will definitely make this again and add the greens next time. Thank you for yet another great recipe!
You’re welcome, Carol! Thank you for your review.
Made this today. BIG hit!!
Wonderful to hear, Kathy!
Absolutely delicious!!!!!!!!! This will be my go-to vegetable soup recipe from now on!!! Thank you so much:)
You’re welcome, Marnie!