This skinny homemade Vegetable Soup recipe is packed with flavor and a star recipe in any weight loss plan. It's filling, satisfying with wholesome ingredients and full of fiber. It's a noodle soup made with only plants (bye bye pasta).
This is the soup recipe for all people! It's a healthy choice that is loaded with vegetables. It's very low calorie (65 calories per 2 cup serving) and filling so perfect if on a weight loss plan.
This vegetarian soup can be customized in many ways (our suggestions included). A great recipe to help balance holiday over indulging or to start the year off great.
It's the 'go to' recipe when you need to shed some pounds but want food to taste good and make you feel good in the process!
If you follow Weight Watchers it's only a few points for an ample serving and we'll tell you how to make it a zero point recipe too!
We aren't waiting for the new year to pull out this soup recipe. It's the time of year when holiday entertaining is about to kick off. This recipe needs to be in your arsenal to balance our any partying outside the calorie lines.
It's a comforting healthy choice for a quick meal and a healthy diet. Try our Cabbage Vegetable Soup and Chicken Zoodle Soup too!
Jump to:
Vegetable Weight Loss Soup
To be clear there is no one silver bullet food that will help you lose weight. BUT this is a perfect food to incorporate into a weight loss plan.
Everyone has heard of the cabbage soup diet. Cabbage soup isn't the only game in town.
This veggie soup recipe is full of a variety of vegetables so it's a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. It's nutrient rich so no empty calories with fake ingredients. This soup nourishes the body with great flavor and nutrition.
It's the kind of recipe people reach for on January first to kick start a healthy eating regime, weight loss plan or pursue a more plant-based diet. It's perfect for all those things. And it doesn't taste like you are on a diet.
Add the zucchini spiralized noodles and it becomes a hearty soup with comfort food texture without the pasta too.
What makes this skinny?
- All the vegetables. The bulk of the recipe is vegetables with a vegetable broth.
- It uses lean plant protein with beans. Protein helps keeps you full and so adding some makes the soup even more of a win!
- Only a tablespoon of olive oil used in 16 cups of soup!
Recipe Ingredient Notes
The recipe is full of wholesome vegetables that are easy to find at any grocery store: onion, garlic, carrots, celery, cabbage, canned tomatoes and more!
Vegetable broth. Use fat free low sodium vegetable broth.
Vegetable noodles. The soup includes spiralized zucchini noodles and spiralized yellow zucchini or summer squash noodles. These can be made at home or purchased! Most grocery stores offer a prepared ingredient section or frozen.
Italian seasoning. This spice blend combines all the delicious herbs common in Italian cooking in one mixture. You can use a store bought brand or homemade Italian seasoning spice blend.
Making Zucchini Noodles with a Vegetable Spiralizer
If you haven't tried using a vegetable spiralizer now is the time! They are affordable and very easy to use.
They come with different insertable plates that allow you to turn vegetables and fruit into ribbons, thick noodles, thin noodles and more in mere minutes.
For this recipe a ⅛-inch or 3MM noodle blade should be used.
There are multiple brands of sprializers. I have a crank version I've had for a number of years most similar to this model recommended on Amazon.com (with 24,000 5 star reviews). See photo 2 below.
How to Make Skinny Vegetable Soup – Step-by-Step
STEP 1. Preparation
Prepare all the vegetables before starting (photos 1-2).
STEP 2. Saute
Heat a large stock pot or large Dutch oven heat the oil over medium-high heat. When the surface is rippling add the onion, cook, until it becomes translucent.
Add the garlic and cook for another minute (photo 3).
STEP 3. Make the soup
Add the carrots, celery, red beans, diced tomatoes, and vegetable broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes (photos 4-5).
After 20 minutes, add the red cabbage and continue cooking for 10 minutes (photo 6).
After 30 minutes, remove from heat and add the zucchini noodles, let it sit for 5 minutes so that the noodles become tender (photo 7).
Stir in the Italian Seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste (photo 8).
Serve hot in a bowl garnish with fresh parsley.
Variations
Change up the vegetables. We picked these vegetables for their flavor, nutritional content and they are eating the rainbow. But you can swap in or out any fresh veggies you love. Green beans, bell peppers, kale, broccoli or cauliflower. Use your favorite veggies.
Use a different broth or stock. We used vegetable stock for flavor and calories. It also keeps the soup vegetarian and vegan. If desired swap it for chicken broth or beef broth for a different flavor.
Use fresh herbs. To up the flavor add in some aromatic herbs like fresh thyme, basil, or cilantro. Add bay leaves too!
Use different beans. We used red kidney beans but you can use any beans you love. Cannellini beans, black beans, white beans, garbanzo beans; they all will work.
Make it spicy. If you like spicy soup add some red pepper flakes at the end.
Add meat. If you want some meat protein sauté some ground turkey to start. OR add a boneless skinless chicken breast with the broth, remove at the end of cooking. Shred it and return it to the soup pot with the zoodles (like our Chicken Zoodle Soup).
Add tomato paste. For more of a tomato soup broth stir in some tomato paste when adding the healthy vegetables and broth.
Weight Watchers Zero Point Soup
To make this zero points:
- Do not use the olive oil for sautéing the onion and minced garlic. Instead use a non-stick skillet lightly sprayed with olive oil spray.
- Do not include the beans.
Now you have a zero point filling soup!
Pro Tips
Buy prepared vegetables. Prepared fresh vegetables are widely available in the grocery store. Take advantage of veggie already prepped to cut down on time at home!
Use a mini chopper. This mini version of a food processor takes on chopping tasks like a champ. Whenever we need to chop vegetables we use it. Huge time saver.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Allow it to cool and place into an airtight freezer-safe container. Freeze for up to 3 months and thaw in the refrigerator before reheating. I love using this freezer block maker to freeze the soup in bags. It's a mold that forms in the bag and after it's frozen you have easily stackable bags of soup!
Yes! We prefer fresh vegetables however frozen vegetables can also be used. If following a weight loss plan adding starchy vegetables like corn or sweet potatoes for instance will change the calorie amount and Weight Watchers points.
How to Store
Allow to cool and store in the refrigerator for up to three days.
More recipes you'll love!
Recipe
Low Calorie Vegetable Soup with Zucchini Noodles
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 3 garlic cloves diced
- 2 medium carrots rinsed and diced
- 3 medium celery stalks sliced
- 1 15.5-ounce can red kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1 28-ounce can petite diced tomatoes petite diced tomatoes
- 2 quarts (8 cups) fat free vegetable broth
- 1 cup chopped red cabbage
- 2 cups zucchini noodles approximately 1 medium zucchini
- 2 cups yellow zucchini noodles or summer squash approximately 1 medium yellow squash
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- ¼ cup chopped Italian parsley for garnish
Instructions
- In a large stock pot or Dutch oven heat the oil over medium-high heat. When the surface is rippling add the onion, cook, until it become translucent.
- Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add the carrots, celery, red beans, diced tomatoes and vegetable broth; bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, add the red cabbage, stir to combine and continue cooking for 10 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove from heat. Add the zucchini noodles, let it sit for 5 minutes so that the noodles become tender.
- Stir in the Italian Seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve hot in a bowl garnish with fresh parsley.
Notes
- Green: 2
- Blue: 1
- Purple: 1
Sharon says
Made this the day after Thanksgiving after getting the link in your newsletter. Loved it! It’s so colorful and the flavor is delicious. Will be making this regularly.
Julie says
Hearty, comforting and full of flavor. My kind of soup!
Michele says
I loved this homemade vegetable soup. It was so good and easier to make than I expected. Thanks for a great recipe.
Dana Sandonato says
Loved using the Y-peeler to get julienne veggies/zoodles for this recipe! I usually do it for salads but it was so great in soup! This is so nourishing and tasty.
Natalie says
I am loving all the soups lately!! I love that this is low calorie, but it's packed with flavor & you can eat as much as you want without feeling guilty.
katerina says
I absolutely love this soup! Its so hearty, warm and delicious!!
Betsy says
LOVE the zoodles! I'm a huge fan of them! They're perfect in this soup! Warm and hearty, it's a perfect soup for these chilly evenings! And even better...it's healthy, too! Love it!!
Liz says
There's nothing i love more than making soup from scratch!! Thanks for the delish. recipe, cant wait to try it!
Jeri says
This soup is absolutely LOADED with healthy ingredients! It has beautiful color and amazing flavor! This is going to be a regular on our dinner rotation this winter!
Lilly says
I love the addition of zoodles! This was such a tasty soup!
Natalie says
What a great idea to use zoodles!! It's healthy & loaded with flavor! So excited to soup season!
Erin says
This was so delicious! We all loved it. Can't wait to make it again!
Matt says
Such an amazing low-calorie vegetable soup recipe. It tastes great, even better the next day! And very easy to add chicken if desired.
Natalie says
This soup is perfect for colder days. Looks delicious, healthy, and sounds easy to make. I'm adding this recipe to my weekly menu.
Savita says
This Looks absolutely delicious, and flavourful, and has so much nutritional value. Loving it.
Julie says
What a hearty and flavor packed soup. Makes me feel comforted and warm just looking at it.
Lillian says
I love that this veggie soup has zoodles. It makes it feel more substantial and gives the soup more texture!
Kristen says
This soup was amazing! I'm always game for adding more veggies, and this was perfect. Thank you for the delicious recipe!
MJ says
This soup turned out so delicious! Love how cozy and comforting it is while still being healthy.
jUne says
You are a lifesaver. I'm dreading the holidays this year now that we'll be entertaining again. I made the soup and it's SO good! It's very filling and so low cal. I added some leftover shredded rotisserie chicken too.