Vegetable Ditalini Soup

This is a perfect dish to make on a cold, snowy winter night when you want to make a lot of food, with little effort. It also frees you up to do other more important things…like baking Christmas cookies! This vegetable ditalini soup is DELICIOUS! I took a bunch of it in a Stanley thermos when I went hiking through the snow in the woods. Now, you’ll notice in the photo it’s not very soupy. That’s on purpose because I never ever drink up the residual liquid left behind in a soup. I figured rather than waste it, might as well use it up by adding some more pasta! 🙂 So, if you want yours on the more soupy side, use less pasta, and follow the original recipe from Taste of Home.

How do you make homemade vegetable soup?

Homemade vegetable soup can be made in a variety of different ways. In general though, you bring whatever vegetables you are interested in eating to a boil in a combination of water and broth and cook until desired tenderness. You can add whatever spices you want, and some pasta (or your favorite pasta substitute) to add some more body to the soup.

What are the ingredients of vegetable soup?

The ingredients of a vegetable soup can be whatever you want it to be! I like to get my inspiration from the various blends of frozen vegetables at the store to get a sense of which vegetables pair well with one another.

What is the difference between a soup and a stew?

The difference between a soup and a stew is the amount of liquid. A soup has a lot more excess liquid than a stew. To transform a soup into more of a stew, add in some pasta or your favorite pasta substitute.

How do you make soup thicker?

There are a lot of different ways to thicken a soup. If you can use dairy, options include using heavy cream or plain Greek yogurt. Keep in mind that the yogurt will add a bit of a tangy flavor. If you don’t want to alter the taste at all, you can puree one or two cups of your soup with a blender (I like to use a stick blender) and then return it to the pot. The more traditional way to thicken soups, is to use flour or corn starch. Here, you just take a few tablespoons of either one, whisk it in with a little bit of the soup broth in a separate bowl, then whisk the entire mixture into the soup. A final way to thicken soups is by adding in ground nuts. Take a handful of nuts and grind just until they have crumbled and are beginning to form a paste. Whisk the ground nuts with a little bit of soup broth, and then whisk the entire mixture into the soup.

How to Make Vegetable Ditalini Soup: Step-by-Step

1. It’s important to make sure that all of your vegetables are roughly the same in size so that they cook uniformly. In other words, all of the onion pieces should be similar in size, the potatoes, etc.

Uniformly chopped red potatoes, onion, and a green bell pepper on a wooden cutting board.

2. Heat the extra light olive oil over medium heat. Once the oil begins to shimmer, it’s ready for sauteing. Saute pepper, onion, and potatoes over medium heat until tender (about 5-7 minutes). For the last minute of cooking, toss in the garlic and cook until fragrant. All of the vegetables should be soft and the onions translucent, at the end of cooking. You will also notice that the vegetables lose their color as they cook. This is ok 🙂

Chopped red potatoes, onion, and a green bell pepper in a large pot on a stove at the beginning of sauteing.

Addition of garlic to a pot of already sauteed red potatoes, onion, and green bell pepper.

3. Add in the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the pasta and the potatoes are cooked.

Vegetable ditalini soup with the remaining ingredients added to the pot.

The finished vegetable ditalini soup after cooking for 15-20 minutes.

Recipe lightly adapted from the original version on Taste of Home.

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