Minestrone

Michael Eisenwasser

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A hearty Italian vegetable soup with rinsed canned lentils, tomatoes, zucchini, and gluten-free pasta, built on homemade broth and garlic-infused oil.

Prep 15 min

Cook 40 min

Serves 6

Gluten-freeDairy-free option

Ingredients

• 8 cups (1.9 L) low-FODMAP chicken broth or low-FODMAP vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons garlic-infused olive oil
• 1/2 cup scallion greens (~40 g), sliced thin
• 2 medium carrots, diced small
• 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced (spread across 6 servings)
• 2 medium zucchini (~390 g total), diced into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 (14 oz / 400 g) can chopped tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups (276 g) canned lentils, drained and thoroughly rinsed
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil (or 2 tablespoons fresh, added at the end)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 oz (115 g) gluten-free elbows or small shells (brown-rice or corn-based, not legume)
• 4 packed cups baby spinach (~120 g across the pot)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 40 g (about 1/3 cup) grated Parmesan, to finish (optional)

Instructions

Build the Base

1. Warm the garlic-infused oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the scallion greens, carrots, and celery. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring, until the carrots start to soften and the scallions smell sweet.
2. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute so it darkens and loses its raw edge. Add the zucchini and toss to coat.

Simmer the Soup

1. Pour in the canned tomatoes and the broth. Add the oregano, dried basil, thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to a gentle simmer.
2. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, until the carrots and zucchini are tender but still hold their shape.
3. Stir in the rinsed lentils. Simmer for 5 more minutes to warm through.

Add Pasta and Greens

1. Bring the soup back to a gentle simmer. Add the gluten-free pasta and cook per the package, usually 7 to 9 minutes, until just tender. Taste a piece. Gluten-free pasta goes from firm to mushy quickly.
2. Stir in the spinach in two handfuls, letting each wilt before adding the next. This takes about 2 minutes.
3. Fish out the bay leaf. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Stir in the parsley and fresh basil if using.
4. Ladle into bowls and top with grated Parmesan and a drizzle of garlic-infused oil.

Tips & Substitutions

• Rinse the lentils hard. Canned lentils are low-FODMAP at 1/4 cup (46 g) per serve, but only when thoroughly rinsed. The FODMAPs that build up in canning liquid wash off under cold running water for 60 seconds. Drain twice to be safe.
• Use homemade broth. Most supermarket broths list onion powder, garlic powder, or both. Homemade chicken broth or homemade vegetable broth is the cleanest base. Fody and Gourmend make Monash-certified boxed backups.
• Skip kidney beans, portion chickpeas carefully. Traditional minestrone uses kidney beans; they become high-FODMAP quickly and are hard to portion across a soup pot. Chickpeas max out at 1/4 cup canned and rinsed per person, so they're possible but fussy. Canned lentils give the same hearty bite with a wider safe window.
• Brown-rice or corn pasta only. Tinkyada, Jovial, and Barilla Gluten Free elbows or small shells hold up in soup. Skip red lentil or chickpea pasta; those legumes stack on top of the canned lentils and push the load over the low-FODMAP threshold.
• Zucchini cap matters. Monash tests zucchini at 1/2 cup (65 g) per serve. Two medium zucchini across 6 bowls keeps each serving right at the safe line. Don't double the zucchini to bulk out the soup.
• Cook pasta separately for leftovers. Gluten-free pasta keeps drinking liquid in the fridge and turns mushy by day two. Boil the pasta in a second pot, add it to each bowl at serve time, and store the soup and pasta apart.
• Dairy-free option. Skip the Parmesan or swap in nutritional yeast. A 40 g Parmesan portion across 6 bowls is low in lactose (hard aged cheese), but nutritional yeast keeps the soup fully dairy-free.

Why This Works

Canned lentils, rinsed, open the legume door. Canned lentils (drained and well rinsed) are tolerated at larger serves than lentils cooked from dried. The canning process leaches high-FODMAP sugars into the liquid, and a thorough rinse drops the rest. Monash greenlights 1/4 cup (46 g) per serve, which is enough to give minestrone real body without triggering a flare.

Scallion greens plus garlic-infused oil replace the onion-garlic base. Classic minestrone starts with a soffritto of onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. The onion fructans live in the white bulb; scallion greens carry the same aromatic compounds and stay low-FODMAP up to 75 g per serve. Garlic's fructans don't dissolve in oil, so infused oil captures the flavor without the load.

Tomato paste and canned tomatoes stack safely. Monash tests canned tomatoes at 1/2 cup per serve and tomato paste at 2 tablespoons per serve. Spread across a 6-serve pot, that's room for both without stacking fructose.

Zucchini and spinach bulk the bowl without cost. Zucchini is low-FODMAP at 1/2 cup (65 g) per serve; spinach is low at 75 g. Together they give minestrone its green-vegetable identity while staying well under the threshold.

Gluten-free elbows beat legume pasta here. Brown-rice, corn, or quinoa shapes test low-FODMAP at 1 cup cooked. Red lentil and chickpea pastas look healthy on the label but stack extra FODMAPs on top of the canned lentils already in the pot.

Storage

Refrigerate in a sealed container at 40°F (4°C) or below for 3 to 4 days. Freeze the soup base (without the pasta or spinach) for up to 3 months; the pasta turns mushy on the thaw and the spinach bleeds color. When reheating, warm the soup in a pot, boil fresh pasta in a second pot, and stir in fresh spinach at the end.

Not sure about an ingredient? FODMAP Tracker includes a database of 1,000+ foods with FODMAP ratings to help you cook with confidence.