Minestrone

part of: Vegetable

Minestrone is a hearty Italian-style vegetable soup built around whatever vegetables are on hand, combined with beans, pasta or rice, and a tomato base. The canned, ready-to-serve version offers a convenient take on this classic — thick, chunky, and requiring nothing more than heating.

Traditional minestrone varies hugely from region to region and kitchen to kitchen, but the canned version typically includes a mix of diced vegetables such as carrots, celery, zucchini, and green beans, along with kidney or borlotti beans and small pasta shapes. The broth is tomato-based and well-seasoned with herbs.

It is a practical pantry staple for quick lunches and light dinners. While it won’t match a slow-simmered homemade version, a good canned minestrone provides a filling, vegetable-rich meal with minimal effort.

Produced
photograph to come — from twenty years of markets, farms and kitchens

How it's made

Vegetables are washed, peeled, and diced into chunky pieces. Beans are pre-cooked and pasta is par-cooked separately. All components are combined with a tomato-based broth, seasoning, and herbs in large kettles, heated to serving temperature, and filled into cans. The sealed cans are then retorted — heated under pressure — to sterilise the contents and ensure shelf stability.

Nutrition (per 100g)

Energy 53kcal
Protein 2.1g
Carbs 6.2g
Fat 1.2g
Fibre 2.4g Sugar 2.2g
Mass Distribution

1 can (19 oz) is about 539 g — roughly 290 kcal of this.

What it costs the planet (per kilo)

Carbon ≈2.02kg
Freshwater ≈433.68L
Land ≈1.68m²

≈ Estimated — worked out from a category-typical value further up its supply chain. Where this comes from →

Where it comes from

In the kitchen

Used as

hearty vegetable soup

Goes well with
parmesan crusty bread basil garlic olive oil
Classic dishes
  • Minestrone
  • Italian vegetable soup

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Where this data comes from

Nutrition data from

USDA

How it was calculated

SR Legacy

Full credits, licences, and methods: the sources page →

Where to next

made fromVegetable, product goes well withbasil goes well withgarlic goes well witholive oil shares a sourceCourt Bouillon shares a sourceCream of Vegetable Soup shares a sourceGarden Vegetable Soup shares a sourceTsukemono shares a sourceVegetable (General)
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