Vegan pasta Fagioli is a healthy, comforting meal made in just one pot! This hearty vegetarian soup recipe is so easy to make and packed full of flavor! This will quickly become your go-to soup recipe! Ready in under 30 minutes with easy to find ingredients, this is the perfect weeknight meal!
Why you will love this recipe
Pasta e Fagioli (pasta and beans) is a traditional Italian soup recipe that is packed with flavor, only requires one pot to cook and is also very inexpensive to make. You can even make it in the Instant Pot! You will be putting this soup on your weekly meal rotation!
This vegetarian pasta e Fagioli with spinach recipe and can easily feed a big crowd so it’s perfect for quick weeknight meals or casual entertaining. My personal favorite though, is to make it on the weekend for lunches all week!
Perfect comfort food on cold days, this vegan pasta e Fagioli soup is incredibly filling! To make the soup more hearty and thick (almost like a thick stew) I blend up some of the beans in the recipe. This helps keep the soup dairy free (no added cream or cheese) but still packed with flavor!
Even better the next day! If you are entertaining company or just meal prepping for yourself, you can make this soup ahead of time and reheat it with a little extra stock or water the next day!
I used lentil pasta to keep this pasta Fagioli gluten-free, but you can use whatever pasta you have on hand.
What is pasta e fagioli
Pasta e Fagioli is a peasant dish from Italy that translates to pasta and beans. The traditional recipe often includes some pancetta or sausage as the base, but often it’s written as a vegan or vegetarian dish. The beauty of this dish is that the pasta cooks in the soup, helping to thicken the soup while also making it extremely easy to prepare.
Recently, pasta e Fagioli has gained some recognition in the US as it is a popular soup on the Olive Garden menu.
What is the difference between pasta e Fagioli and minestrone soup:
Both of these recipes are a tomato base with pasta and beans. Typically minestrone also includes a number of vegetables (like zucchini, peas, green beans, etc.) where pasta e fagioli is just pasta and beans with tomatoes and aromatics (carrots, celery, and onion).
Ingredients:
- Onion
- Carrots
- Celery
- Crushed tomatoes
- Vegetable broth (or stock)
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Italian seasoning
- Salt
- Bay leaf
- White beans (cannellini or great white northern beans)
- Pasta
- Frozen spinach (or you could use fresh) – optional
Instructions:
- Heat a large pot over medium heat while you chop the vegetables (onions, celery, carrots).
- Spray the bottom of the pot with non-stick spray (I used olive oil) and add the veggies.
- Saute the veggies for 5-6 minutes until onions become translucent.
- To the pot with the veggies add 3 cups vegetable broth, the crushed tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and spices (salt, Italian seasoning, bay leaf).
- Let the mixture come to a boil on the stove.
- While you are waiting for the soup to boil, rinse and drain the 2 cans of white beans.
- Blend up 1 cup of white beans with 1 cup of vegetable broth you reserved until smooth (I use an immersion blender but you can use whatever you have on hand).
- Once the soup is boiling, add the beans, pasta and the bean puree to the pot. Stir well.
- Cook the soup for 1 minute less than the minimum time indicated on the cooking instructions for the pasta. (Example: For the lentil pasta I used the recommended time was 5-6 minutes, so I cooked the soup for 4 minutes.)
- Turn the soup off, and add the frozen spinach (optional). This will help cool down the soup and also add color and more vegetables
