Homemade Alphabet Vegetable Soup is a delicious spin on your fave canned soup – it's also freezer-friendly and ready in 30 minutes!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Olive oil – or any other neutral cooking oil like canola or avocado oil.
- Onion – white onion, yellow onion or shallots would all work.
- Garlic – fresh minced garlic is best but jarred minced garlic can be used in a pinch.
- White potato – try using Yukon gold, red or sweet potatoes instead.
- Italian seasoning – use a combination of oregano, basil, thyme, sage and rosemary.
- Bay leaves – oregano or thyme have a similar flavour.
- Kidney beans – black beans, pinto beans or chickpeas would all be good in this soup.
- Vegetable broth – you could also use vegetable stock or chicken broth.
- Canned diced tomatoes – fresh diced tomatoes would also work here.
- Alphabet pasta – macaroni, ditalini or orzo pasta is the next best option.
- Frozen vegetables – fresh veggies like zucchini, bell peppers, carrots and mushrooms would be good.
- Salt & pepper – to taste.
How to make alphabet soup
- Assemble your ingredients.
- Sauté the onions and garlic.
- Add in the potatoes, bay leaves, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
- Mix in the rest of the ingredients.
- Bring to a boil and simmer.
- Remove the bay leaves and serve!
How to add more protein
This is a vegetarian soup recipe, so the protein in the soup comes from kidney beans and pasta. Other vegetarian options for more protein include:
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- Tofu
- Quinoa
- Chickpeas
- Edamame
If you eat meat, you have plenty of options for extra protein, including:
- Shredded or cubed cooked chicken or turkey
- Beef sirloin tips
- Leftover beef roast
- Cooked ground beef or turkey
Frequently Asked Questions
Alphabet soup is made with lots of veggies and small alphabet-shaped pasta noodles. Some recipes may include ground beef, but this one is vegetarian.
This homemade soup has 225 calories per serving. It’s a great low-calorie meal option and is super filling thanks to the vegetarian-based protein!
You should be able to find the pasta in larger grocery stores, and sometimes in the kids/toddlers section – that's actually where I found my pasta! If it's proving tricky, you can order it online at places like Amazon, or you can just use another small pasta shape such as macaroni, ditalini or orzo.
Storing and reheating
This soup will last in the fridge for up to 5 days in airtight glass containers and the leftovers are as tasty as the fresh soup. To reheat the soup, add a little bit of extra water and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, stirring halfway through. You can also reheat it in a pot on the stove.
Freezing this soup
Before you freeze the soup, be sure to cool it down to room temperature. Then, place it into meal prep containers or another type of airtight food-safe container. It will keep well frozen for 3 to 4 months.
To reheat, you can either defrost in the fridge overnight and then microwave as directed above, or you can reheat directly from frozen. Just microwave for 6-8 minutes, stirring halfway through and possibly adding more water if you think it needs it. The frozen leftovers will taste just as good as fresh!
More classic soup recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning this soup into your weekly lunches.
- I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
- This is the wild rice blend I use
- Freeze this recipe in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months
Homemade Alphabet Vegetable Soup {One Pot Meal}
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium-sized white potato, chopped
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 1 (796mL) can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup dried alphabet pasta
- 1 package frozen vegetables
Instructions
- Rinse potatoes well under running water to remove excess starch.
- In a large, deep pot, heat olive oil over med-high heat. Add onions and garlic, sauteeing for 30 seconds, then add potatoes, Italian seasoning, bay leaves and salt & pepper. Saute for 5 min, stirring often.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer on medium-low heat for 30 minutes, stirring often, until pasta is cooked through. Remove bay leaves, then serve and enjoy!
Inder says
This will be the 3rd time I am making this soup from your recipe. My husband and I absolutely love it and we find the flavors even get better after a couple of days. This soup recipe is definitely a hit a my house!
Colleen Volcjak says
I just made this and it is soooo good. Only thing I did different was I used 1/2 cup alphabet pasta (I was afraid of how much broth would soak the pasta) and used frozen lima beans instead of kidney. Not that I don’t like beans I love them but as a child when I would have them I was the one that ate my soup and saved the lima beans for last lol. Thanks for the great recipe and memories!
Colleen Volcjak says
OH. I was unable to rate for some reason but I would give it 10 stars!
Wendy says
Hello Taylor,
I was wondering if you have the nutrition facts for this yummy soup?
Thank You
Taylor Stinson says
Unfortunately I’m not able to include nutritional info on older recipes in my archives like this one. Sorry about this!
Kelly says
Haha, I love the “noms” 🙂
Also I am totally that girl who drops a bunch of money at the grocery store only to come home and eat a PB&J because everything else is too overwhelming!
Taylor Stinson says
Thanks so much Kelly! 🙂 It literally took me 10 minutes alone to dig around and find the letters hahaha