Winter minestrone with seasonal vegetables

I wanted a winter minestrone soup that kept the familiar flavors of the classic soup, while making the most of cool-season vegetables.

This version uses butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach, but minestrone is incredibly flexible so I want to help you adapt it to your favorite winter vegetables.

Below, I'll show you which vegetables work really well, what they taste like, and how they hold up in soup, from familiar options like parsnips to uncommon produce like sunchokes, celeriac, or parsley root.

Jump to:

• Winter squash
• Root vegetables
• Add some winter greens
• Beans, pasta, and other grains
• Finish with pesto and wine
• Recipe
• Leftovers
• More recipes for winter

Vegetable	Texture in soup & cooking notes
Butternut squash	Easy to peel & dice, flesh can turn stringy or mushy.
Honeynut squash	Easy to peel & dice, firm, creamy flesh. Flavor more concentrated than butternut.
Carrots	Holds shape. Peel only if bitter.
Parsnips	Holds shape and has more sugar than carrots with a nuttier flavor. Peel only if bitter.
Waxy potatoes	Dense flesh holds together when simmered (unlike russets). No need to peel.
Sweet potatoes	Noticeably sweet with creamy texture, can fall apart when overcooked. No need to peel.
Celery root	Dense, creamy flesh when simmered. Cut off skin with a knife. Mild parsnip-like flavor with hints of celery.
Sunchokes	Simmers perfectly in soup with a creamy texture. Mild potato-parsnip flavor. No need to peel.
Parsley root	Very similar in appearance, texture, and flavor to parsnips. Tastes like parsnips and parsley.
Spinach	Roughly chop and add right before serving.
Kale	Cut into thin ribbons, texture stays just slightly crunch when added to soup.
Brussels sprouts	Shred and add raw, or roast/pan fry for a toasty flavor.
Cabbage	Shred and add right before serving for crunch, or earlier to simmer and soften.

See what vegetables are in season throughout December, January, and February.

Winter squash

My top choices for a winter minestrone are butternut squash and honeynut squash, which was bred to be a smaller, more flavorful version of a butternut squash.

Both of these winter squashes can be peeled with a vegetable peeler, making them extremely convenient for this soup.

Butternut squash is a classic in winter minestrone for its mild flavor and starchy flesh. The long neck gives you a lot of flesh for easy dicing without working around the central seed cavity. However, the flesh can be a little stringy or grainy depending on the quality.

Honeynut squash is a favorite of mine because of the sweeter, more concentrated flavor. The flesh is also much denser and the chunks in a soup have a perfect creamy texture.

I personally avoid acorn and kabocha squash for this type of soup, although they work out extremely well where they are pureed into the soup.

• Acorn squash: hard to peel around the ridges, and the flesh has a stringy or grainy texture (which might be absent in heirloom varieties from a farmers market).
• Kabocha squash: has a wonderful flavor but the flesh cooks up starchy and fluffy like a russet potato, making it perfect for blending into a soup, but not for a chunky soup (like when you'd use waxy red potatoes).

Root vegetables

Root vegetables get to shine throughout winter, and this minestrone soup is no exception.

Each root vegetable has a very distinct flavor. You can pick just one or use them all. I personally like to use as many as I can for a more interesting flavor.

Carrots and parsnips

Carrots are a classic choice for their sweet flavor, but don't overlook parsnips.

Parsnips actually contain more sugar than carrots and they have an interesting earthy, nutty flavor.

I almost never peel carrots or parsnips before adding them to the soup. However, you might want to taste them first.

If they taste bitter, try peeling them to remove some of that bitter flavor, which tends to be concentrated in the peels.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes

Any type of potato is great except for russets. Russets love to fall apart when simmered in a soup, which is great for a creamy pureed soup, but not for a hearty, chunky minestrone.

Red potatoes, yukon golds, and multicolored fingerlings all work out perfectly. You don't need to peel them either.

Sweet potatoes are also fantastic, adding their characteristic sweet caramel flavor to the soup.

Celery root, sunchokes, and parsley root

These root vegetables are not common in winter minestrone recipes, but they should be. These actually all have fairly similar flavors with subtle differences.

Celery root is gnarly looking on the outside, but delicately flavored on the inside. It's actually the same species as the plant that grows celery stalks, just a different variety cultivated specifically for a large, flavorful bulb.

It has a subtle herbal and earthy flavor that tastes a little like celery, parsley, and parsnips combined.

Parsley root tastes like a combination of parsley, celery root, and parsnips. Are you noticing a trend yet?

Parsley root is a variety of parsley grown for the large, edible root (just like celery root). They actually look a lot like parsnips, but smaller and skinnier. They don't need to be peeled and conveniently cut up into little rounds for the minestrone.

Sunchokes are also called Jerusalem artichokes and are the underground tuber of a distant cousin to sunflowers. It looks similar to ginger.

Their flavor is subtle and earthy, kind of like celery root or parsnips actually. When simmered in this minestrone, they turn creamy. You don't need to peel them either.

Add some winter greens

A good winter minestrone always has some sort of green added, and we have a lot of choices when it comes to cold-hardy greens.

Spinach and kale are classic choices for this soup, but Brussels sprouts and cabbage are also perfect winter contenders.

• Spinach: easily wilts and has a mild flavor
• Kale: holds it's shape and retains a very slight crunch, chop into ribbons before adding
• Brussels sprouts: shred and add to the soup. But my favorite method is to pan-fry or roast them until the edges turn brown, then I add them to the soup for a toasty flavor.
• Cabbage: shred and add raw - add it at the end for some crunch or let it cook down for a softer texture.

Beans, pasta, and other grains

Beans are common in minestrone, while pasta, rice, or other grains make it even heartier for winter.

I kept this version fairly classic and used both cannellini beans and a small ditalini pasta. But as I mentioned before, one of the best things about minestrone is the flexibility.

Try swapping any of these grains with the pasta:

• Farro: adds a distinctive nutty flavor and starchy texture. Use ⅔ cup uncooked.
• Pearled barley: mild, slightly nutty, and chewy. Use about ⅔ cup uncooked.
• Wild rice: earthy and starchy. Use ½ to ⅔ cup uncooked.

I'd probably cook these grains separately then add them to the pot when the soup is finished. That makes their cooking times easier to control.

Finish with pesto and wine

Pesto and wine are both traditional finishing touches.

Pesto adds a bright herbal flavor brightens up the earthier winter vegetables. I like stirring it directly into each soup bowl right before serving for a bigger punch of flavor.

Wine, on the other hand, is best stirred into the whole pot. It adds an extra splash of acidity, which you can skip if that's not your thing. I always use a wine I enjoy drinking since that flavor will come through in the soup.

Recipe

Leftovers

I eat this soup leftover all of the time, but mostly because it gives me a night off from cooking. The reality is the leftover minestrone, regardless of the recipe, is mediocre.

The problem is the pasta, grains, and vegetables continue to soak up liquid. This turns the pasta and grains a bit gummy and the vegetables turn extremely soft.

• The flavor doesn't get better with time (like it does with chili and some stews)
• The greens can get a bit wilty
• The noodles get much bigger as they sit and soak up the extra liquid
• The soup is thicker and sometimes needs to be watered down with extra stock (and diluting the flavor as a result)

When reheated, the leftovers are good, but not great. But there are ways to make the leftovers as good as the first day.

More recipes for winter

Looking for other hearty winter recipes? It's my favorite time of year and I have a lot of soups, salads, and even a good spinach lasagna for you to check out.