This alphabet vegetable soup recipe is easy, homemade, and satisfying. It freezes wonderfully and keeps perfectly for lunches all week. Add your favorite spices and use your favorite vegetables. Alphabet pasta is really fun, but any small shaped pasta works!
I know, I know. Vegetable soup where I usually share recipes like chocolate cake and peanut butter pie?
Stick with me. This is an absolutely delicious soup recipe, especially considering that most of your bowl is vegetables. Paired with lots of seasonings, plenty of garlic, hearty potato, and super fun pasta, vegetable soup finally receives a glamorous makeover.
This homemade soup is… SO GOOD! It joins my list of 30 delicious fall dinner recipes—and for good reason.
Let’s Make Alphabet Vegetable Soup!
Spelling with our food calls for lots of excitement! I was inspired to make homemade alphabet vegetable soup because (1) it’s adorable and (2) homemade soup always tastes superior to canned. I bought the Amy’s brand organic alphabet soup a few times recently and while it tastes great (for kids and adults!), I knew I could replicate it at home.
This is a very low-key soup with a lot of room for substitutions. Chicken or vegetable broth? Either works. Fresh or frozen veggies? You pick. Green beans, corn, carrots? Use whatever. Just about any combination of ingredients, while somewhat following the recipe, works.
Two additions we love:
- Potato: 1 medium potato adds heartiness. Potato gives each spoonful a little more staying power and substance. Sweet potato works too and adds wonderful flavor, just like it does in sweet potato turkey chili.
- Tomato Paste: The tomato paste helps thicken and adds fantastic concentrated flavor.
Where Can I Find Alphabet Pasta?
I bought alphabet pasta online (affiliate link), but later realized it’s common in most major grocery stores. If you can’t find alphabet pasta or don’t want to buy it online, use any small shaped pasta. You need about 1 cup dry.
By the way, frozen veggies make the soup even easier. No need to thaw!
What makes me happy: This soup is really easy, loaded with vegetables, pretty healthy, feeds us for a few days, satisfies for hours, and tastes awesome.
What makes me even happier: My kids eat it!
If you don’t love it too, I promise to come spoon up your leftovers.
Here’s a friendly reminder that brown butter sage dinner rolls, no knead seeded oat bread, homemade breadsticks, asiago-crusted skillet bread, sweet potato dinner rolls, and homemade biscuits all make the best soup dippers.
More Meatless Dinner Recipes
- Pumpkin Chili
- Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
- Creamy Cauliflower Potato Soup
- Biscuit Vegetable Pot Pie
- Minestrone Soup
- Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie
Homemade Alphabet Vegetable Soup
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: serves 8
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This alphabet vegetable soup recipe is easy, homemade, and satisfying. It freezes wonderfully and keeps perfectly for lunches all week. Add your favorite spices and use your favorite vegetables. Alphabet pasta is really fun, but any small shaped pasta works!
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion (1/2 of a large onion)
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning*
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 8 cups beef, chicken, or vegetable broth
- 3–4 cups frozen, canned, or fresh vegetables*
- 1 medium potato, peeled & chopped (1 heaping cup)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes (do not drain)
- 1 cup dry alphabet pasta*
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a 5-quart (or larger) pot or dutch oven. Add the garlic, onion, Italian seasoning, salt, thyme, and pepper. Stir and cook for 5 minutes as the onion softens.
- Add broth, vegetables, potato, bay leaf, tomato paste, and diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then add uncooked pasta. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove bay leaf.
- Serve soup warm and top with fresh parmesan cheese, if desired.
- Cover and store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to a week. To reheat, simply pour into a pot over medium heat and cook until warm. Feel free to add more broth to the leftovers as it cooks if it is too thick. (It thickens in the refrigerator as the potatoes and noodles soak up the liquid.)
Notes
- Freezing: Soup freezes wonderfully! Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator the day before eating, then reheat on the stove until warm.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Large Pot or Dutch Oven (5-quart or larger) | Alphabet Pasta
- If you don’t have Italian seasoning, you can use any combination of Italian spices that you like. Dried basil, rosemary, oregano, etc.
- I use a 19 ounce bag of mixed vegetables: corn, peas, green beans, and carrots. This medley tasted delicious in the soup! You can use your favorite fresh, frozen, or canned (drained) vegetables. Do not thaw if using frozen.
- You can usually find alphabet pasta in the pasta aisle of grocery stores or purchase it online. Or use any small shaped pasta.
- Slow cooker directions: Prepare the soup through step 1 on the stovetop. Transfer to a slow cooker, then add everything else except for the pasta. Allow to cook for 2 hours on low, then add the pasta. Cook on low for 1 more hour.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Loved this soup and it is very easy in the Instapot Perfect for a lazy weekend watching football and basketball.
Oh, I substituted red lentils for the pasta to keep it Weight Watcher friendly.
I make this soup often and my family loves it. It is a warm and satisfying meal on a cold winter’s day.
Delicious! Great as a fridge cleanout soup when you want to use up all your leftover veggies.
Do you have an approximate calorie count for 1 cup of soup ?
Hi Cindy, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
Great nostalgia recipe, so much better than that can stuff I used to eat as a child! I only ever find the alphabet pasta in the Hispanic foods section of my local Food City( this is Tennessee) but I’m sure it’s also in the same section at other grocery stores…
This soup is amazing! I can’t wait to make it again!
This recipe is as delicious as it is simple. Hearty, healthy, and it reheats really well.
How to adjust this recipe for Dutch oven only (I don’t have a slow cooker or InstaPot)?
Hi Tricia, the directions as written are for a Dutch oven or large pot. Hope you enjoy it!
This soup was delicious. I never had a good recipe for vegetable soup and now this is it. The seasoning was perfect and the flavors were wonderful. I added a little hamburger because my husband likes meat in his soup. I also added a little sugar as another reviewer suggested. Thanks so much for a terrific recipe.
I’ve made several recipes an this one for sure I will make sounds delicious thank you my grandchildren love soup as I also do
Another too good to be true recipe! This easy, wonderful soup would be great with the olive bread I made this morning, if there was any left. Had to sub the pasta, still great.
This was simply marvelous to have on the first snowy day here in Washington state! I used half beef bouillon cubes and half Better Than Bouillon vegetable base. Also used two potatoes instead of one. The flavor of all of the spices together was wonderful, I’m looking forward to the leftovers for the rest of the week.
The best vegetable soup recipe I have found! Great balance of flavours. Thank you!
Hi Sally, I want to make this fin a slow cooker for a larger crowd, say 24 people. How would I multiply the ingredients and cook time?
Hi Naomi, see recipe notes for slow cooker instructions. This recipe feeds about 8 people, so you’ll need 3x this recipe. Depending on the size of your slow cooker, you will likely need to do this in a few batches. Hope it’s a hit!
I love the idea of a vegetable alphabet soup, but something in the recipe turned my soup bitter. Any idea what it could have been? I countered it with a bit of sugar, but didn’t really want to do that. And the frozen veggies took way longer to cook along with the pasta. I will know next time. Next time I might precook the vegetables and pasta and then add them to the pot.
Hi Jane, could the bitter taste be the acidity from the tomatoes? A bit of sugar will always help with that. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
I have made this soup twice now. The first time I used frozen vegetables and chicken broth. I was disappointed. I thought it lacked flavor and the frozen vegetables just weren’t good. I made this again last night, but I sautéed fresh carrots and celery with the onion and garlic. I used fresh sweet corn and kept the frozen peas. I also decided to use beef broth instead of chicken. It was delicious with more depth of flavor! My whole family ate it well. We sprinkled a little Parmesan on top as suggested, and it was wonderful! I will definitely keep this soup in our family rotation as I made it last night. Although I might add an extra potato next time.
I got sick while on vacation this summer, and all I wanted was vegetable soup. Wish I had had this recipe! My DH bought me canned soup, but home made is so much better! I find that a pinch (really, just a pinch, maybe 1/8 tsp of baking soda works better than sugar to counter bitterness in cooking.
Delicious! i love alphabets but had only used them in chicken soup before. Sounds like a lot of tomato paste, but it really works here. Thanks again for another great recipe.
I was looking for an alphabet soup recipe and this was exactly what I was looking for! I did 3 small potatoes instead and added pinto beans for protein. I put everything in my instant pot except for the pasta. I did manual pressure cook for 2 mins and after I did a quick release I put in my pasta and left it covered for a few mins. I’m definitely going to do this again! Thank you!
This was so good, and so easy and quick to prepare. It was a perfect dinner to have after coming in from shoveling snow.
Big hit with my 2yo who doesn’t love soup, and my husband, too. Husband is sick today, so this will be our easy healthy weekday dinner. A+++
Amazing recipe!! Will definitely make it again. I used rice ramen noodles and cut them up after they cooked. What a delicious way to eat a bunch of vegetables! I love your desserts but enjoy trying your non dessert recipes too!
Delicious exactly how it is listed. Any chance you know what the calorie count is per cup?
Hi Ann! We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp Glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe!
Thank you for the recipe! This soup was amazing, This look so good….
This was simply perfect!!! Planned an alphabet soup day for my preschooler during quarantine and had to make a soup to fit the fun! She loved it and chose the veggies to fill it out with herself! ( Peas & Green beans!) Thank you for this great recipe:)
I’m in the minority here I realize, but I thought this lacked flavor as written. I will increase the seasonings if I make this again.
Really great recipe! I used my instant pot and followed directions using sauté function. Then I added the rest of the ingredients and set pressure cook to 6 minutes with quick release. It turned out great! Thanks Sally for more simple deliciousness!
Excellent recipe; so delicious. The 5 minute prep time was a joke though. Just cutting the onion, peeling & pressing the garlic, and boiling the water for the veggie broth took 5 minutes. Then I needed to sauteed everything and complete the rest of the recipe. My biggest complaint with following on-line recipes is the unrealistic notes prep times, and this from someone who cooks very often. But, I was very happy with the final result so I plan on trying your other plant-based recipes. Thanks!
just this soup OMG delicious, thank you
This soup was excellent. I used fresh vegetables and added spinach, beans and string beans as well. It was wonderful.
I just fixed this recipe today! Wow is it good. It’s now my new favorite Vegtable soup. I couldn’t find alphabet pasta so I used ditalini and it worked wonderful. I did add 1 lb of lean ground turkey to the recipe as my husband likes a little meat in his soup. The spices are wonderful. The flavor is so good! Thank you for sharing your recipe with us.
Fresh and frozen veggies. very easy to make and good.
Love this soup! It was so easy to make and came out amazing! I’ve tried other recipes of yours and have been so happy with each of them! So happy I discovered you! :))