Tuscan Soup
Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Serves: 8
Recipe and photos updated. March 22, 2025. Original recipe posted March 11, 2021
This is so amazing and FRESH tasting! It’s full of fresh vegetables and herbs. I have never tasted anything like this before. It’s crazy-delicious.
“Mise en place” means everything in its place. That means that you have read through the recipe, understood the mission, and have prepped (sliced, chopped, tied, etc.) all the ingredients before beginning to make the recipe. It is an essential task in almost every single recipe. It is good form and a good habit for kitchen success.
Besides mise en place, if there’s anything I stress about this recipe, it is to use the freshest ingredients you can get your hands on. Farmers’ markets are an ideal shopping area for this recipe. Please, do not use any frozen or (God forbid) canned vegetables. Use fresh herbs (with the exception of the bay leaf. I find that fresh bay leaves can be quite potent) and not dried. Fresh herbs have a tender feel and fresh taste in your mouth that dried cannot mimic in this recipe.
You can change out some veggies if you’d like. I wouldn’t go crazy with red beets that will bleed into the soup, but adding yellow squash or leeks would be good options.
I highly suggest homemade vegetable (or chicken) stock. My stock recipes: Vegetable Stock and Chicken Stock. You are taking the extra effort to use fresh ingredients, go ahead and add the best stock you can.
The lovely “bouquet garni.” It’s a fancy French term for a bouquet of fresh herbs. There is no set standard of which herbs are allowed in order for it to be called a bouquet garni, but the idea is the same. If you want to get super-fancy, tie the herbs with a parsley sprig or a leaf of a leek instead of the kitchen twine. Speaking of the twine, be sure you use kitchen grade. Check the labels. Don’t go grab the paracord from the garage or something from your crafting supplies because they may be coated with something you do not want to consume.
Walksofitaly.com has a fantastic article on the essence of Tuscan food, a concept of “poor cooking,” quite literally. Fresh, high-quality ingredients are the backbone of Tuscan cooking. Authentic recipes don’t use crazy seasonings, but allow the ingredients to speak for themselves. It’s really a great article if you’ve got a few extra minutes.
This is a very simple and comforting meal. I kept noticing that recipes labeled “Tuscan” soups online were very Americanized, made into a creamy dish with a lot of dairy. I did a little research and learned that Tuscan food doesn’t use large amounts of heavy cream. Now, I’m not saying I’ll never make the variation with all the creamy yumminess, but what I discovered to be a true Tuscan soup is made quite simply with whatever fresh vegetables, and some meats, are available with a flavorful broth and herbs. I also learned that with the addition of cannellini beans, the soup becomes Ribollita. That’s divine, too!
Now that you have a recipe, you can make it exactly, or use your local farmer’s market to pick what is fresh and in season and come up with your own “poor man’s soup.”
If you wanted to bulk it up with added protein, shredded chicken would be an excellent option.
If you love cooking with fresh ingredients, you’d love my Ratatouille.
Enjoy!
Tuscan Soup
Ingredients
- 1 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves chopped, stems discarded
- 3 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
- 8 springs fresh thyme
- 4 stems fresh Italian parsley
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 large carrot, sliced
- 2 zucchinis, halved, then sliced
- 1 bunch kale, hardy stems removed, leaves chopped
- 1 bunch chard, hardy stems removed, leaves chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, smashed and finely minced
- 2 medium tomatoes, cored and chopped, (canned diced tomatoes will not give you the fresh flavor)
- 1 1/2 quarts excellent-quality vegetable stock, my recipe, or chicken stock
- kosher salt, to taste
- freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- Crusty bread, for serving, see Notes
Instructions
- Lay the fresh herbs and bay leaf together as a heap. Tightly tie the herbs and bay leaf together with kitchen twine. This is your “bouquet garni.” Set it aside. It will be fished out before the soup is served.
- In a 5 to 8-quart Dutch oven or stock pot, heat the oil over medium-low heat.
- Once the oil is hot, add the onion, fennel, bell peppers, and carrot. Stir often, until vegetables are beginning to soften, about 5 to 8 minutes.
- Add the zucchini, kale, chard, and garlic. Stir often until the zucchini is beginning to soften, about another 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and stock. Stir to combine all the ingredients.
- Taste and adjust any salt and pepper as desired.
- Add the prepared bouquet garni to the pot, pushing to submerge it.
- Place the lid onto the pot, turn the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After each stir, push the herbs back under the veggies.
- Remove the bouquet garni and discard. Taste and adjust any seasonings again as desired.
- Serve very warm with crusty bread.
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