This French, Provencal-style Winter vegetable soup is both hearty and healthy, with loads of winter vegetables, beans and a delicious tomato broth.
This Winter vegetable soup makes the most of the vegetables that are good in the winter – carrots, parsnips, spinach, green beans – along with a handful of frozen peas and hearty white kidney (cannellini) beans. This particular recipe makes a big batch, but there is no fear of it going to waste. Left-overs will keep very well in the fridge and will even freeze well.
The variety of vegetables can easily be varied, according to what odds and ends you might have to use up in your fridge. This soup is perfect served with a rustic, crusty French bread.
Ingredients and substitutions
Herbes de Provence – this is a spice blend, so if you don’t have this on hand, simply replace with a bit of thyme, rosemary, basil and/or savory.
Parsnips – These are optional. You can skip them if you aren’t a fan and/or replace them with more carrots.
Canned Beans – You can replace the kidney beans with any canned beans you have on hand or prefer.
Baby Spinach – Spinach is handy as it is easily added at the end of cooking the soup. You can replace the spinach with another green but if using a thicker green such as Kale, it will need to be added to the soup earlier as it will take longer to cook.
Recipe tips!
- Soups like this one are endlessly customizable and perfect for using up odds and ends of vegetables in your fridge or freezer. Just remember to add the vegetables in the order of how long they take to cook, so root vegetables first and greens like spinach or kale at the end.
- Cooking time may vary, depending on how vigorous your simmering is. Taste test the vegetables to ensure they are all tender.
- Be sure to taste your soup at the end and add more salt and pepper, as needed. If you taste your soup and it seems “bland”, add salt and keep adding, a bit at a time, until the flavours shine! A good salting will ensure a flavourful soup. I also like to stir in some more fresh thyme leaves at the end, for an extra bit of herb flavour.
- If you have some pancetta on hand and would like to add another layer of flavour, fry some in the pot until golden before adding the onions. (If a lot of fat renders off, remove most of it before adding the onion).
Storing and freezing
Left-over soup will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.
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Get the Recipe: Winter Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 medium parsnips, chopped
- 5 cups chicken stock, or vegetable
- 3 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1/2 teaspoon Herbes de Provence, or a pinch of thyme, rosemary, basil and/or savory
- Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 8-10 mini red potatoes, halved
- 1 1/4 cups green beans, fresh or frozen, ends trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup peas, fresh or frozen
- 14 oz canned white kidney cannellini beans, , drained and rinsed
- 28 oz canned whole plum tomatoes, with juice
- 3-4 handfuls fresh baby spinach
Instructions
- n a large soup pot (5 1/2 – 6 quarts), heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add celery, carrots and parsnips and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes. Add chicken stock, thyme sprigs, Herbes de Provence and a bit of salt and pepper. Raise heat under pot to medium-high and bring stock to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Add potatoes and green beans and simmer an additional 10-15 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
- Add frozen peas and kidney beans and simmer 5 minutes. Add tomatoes by hand-crushing them into the soup, adding the juice as well. Add the spinach. Simmer 10-15 minutes more, to allow flavours to blend. If soup is too thick, add a bit more chicken stock to thin.
- Taste soup and add salt and pepper, as needed. You may also like to stir in a few more fresh thyme leaves at this point.
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Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
This is my *you just had a baby meal* and it gets amazing feedback every time I bring it to a sleep deprived mom! The recipe lives on my notes app – pinned to the top!
Do you have any tips for changing it over to a crock pot recipe? I figure sweat the veggies a long whole before adding the stock and add the potatoes with the liquid…. Thoughts?
I’m so pleased to hear! I can certainly relate to the sleep deprived mom (though it’s been a while, but you never really forget ;) As for a slow cooker version, to be honest, I’m not sure that the slow cooker would bring any advantage for this recipe. In fact, the long cooking time might not be particularly kind to the vegetables. That said, I’m all for experimenting in cooking, so I’d certainly give it a go!