Slow cooker minestrone with pesto is the perfect meal to tuck into your slow cooker on a busy day. It makes a great meatless Monday dish too!
This post is brought to you as part of our ongoing collaboration with Fred Meyer/Kroger.
Fall is in the air friends. My birthday was yesterday and that to me is always the signal that winter is coming. Today we will meander down to our local sushi restaurant and eat far too many delicious rolls and leave a gigantic tip to make up for all the rice my children are sure to leave on the floor. And then head to our local breweries Oktoberfest celebration and eat cake and drink beer while the kids frolic on the inflatable bouncy house.
It’s been raining for 2 days straight and the light. I love the light. When you photograph food all day long in natural light there are many days were we have to….persuade, the light to do what we want. Shaping it and moving through out the studio to find what we want. But when it rains….heaven. It wraps around the food in a way that only the perfect dreary fall afternoon can.
Fortunately for us our local Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger) now offers the most amazing service ever called Click List. Last winter I started hearing friends raving about it in other parts of the country and I started tweeting at them asking…okay let’s be honest begging…them to bring it here.
And they did! Just another reason why we absolutely adore shopping here. Every week we prep our studio list and our home grocery list and order everything online. Then when it’s time to pickup we just drive up, call and these angels bring our groceries right out to the car. Cue the hallelujah chorus.
With two little busy boys in tow most of the time this is beyond life changing. Not having to drag them through the store (even though they do offer child care too at our store!) is incredible. We found everything we needed to create this delicious slow cooker minestrone there, from the delicious artisan bread to the gorgeous on the stem tomatoes and fresh basil, everything was on Click List!
They are very careful with our produce too which is incredibly important in our line of work. It’s been so great to have them take this aspect of our busy week off our plate entirely!
Serve this slow cooker minestrone soup with a nice big salad and slices of buttered bread for a perfect fall meal. If your garden is overflowing in summer too this is also a great way to use up tomatoes, green beans and fresh zucchini!
Happy slow cooking!
p.s if you love this slow cooker recipe check out our Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup too!
Slow Cooker Minestrone With Pesto Recipe
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 medium onion , diced
- 6 stalks celery, sliced
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 2 32 oz containers chicken stock
- ½ cup red wine
- 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, liquid included
- 2 14.5 oz-16 oz cans white northern beans, drained
- 1 8 oz can tomato paste
- 5 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons pepper
- 1 cup fresh green beans, optional
- 1 zucchini , thickly sliced
- 8 ounces elbow macaroni , use gluten-free noodles for this to be gluten-free!
- Fresh pesto
- Fresh parmesan cheese
- Optional: fresh spinach
Instructions
- Add butter, onion, celery, and carrots to a large slow cooker. Cook on high for 1 hour (alternatively you can cook in a pan over medium heat for 10 minutes until softened and add to slow cooker if you won’t be home.)
- Add chicken stock, wine, tomatoes, beans, tomato paste, garlic, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. If adding green beans add here if you like them very tender or at the end if you prefer firmer.
- Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 6 hours.
- Just before you are ready to serve, add zucchini to slow cooker and cook pasta to al dente in a large stockpot.
- Put noodles in the individual serving bows and ladle soup over the noodles. Serve with pesto, parmesan, and fresh spinach if desired.
Nutrition
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Kroger/Fred Meyer. All opinions are our own, we exclusively shop at our local Fred Meyer and are honored to work with them as an ambassador. Working with brands we love enables us to bring you beautiful recipes for free each week.
Legit speechless, that slow cooker minestrone pesto recipe looks unreal! Definitely, I will make it on the weekend for my family.
This minestrone with pesto looks yummy and healthy. Definitely will cook it for my family! I will experiment to add bell pepper in your recipe! Thx for sharing!
Great idea!
Great post!! I use ClickList every week and I’d love to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
I LOVE ClickList, it is a life saver for me! I’ll be adding the ingredients for this recipe to my next order 🙂 Love your content!
I’ll have to add this to next week’s meal plan. So perfect! Also, with so many little people in the house, I can’t imagine going back to a life without ClickList. Saves money (I don’t add unnecessary extras to the cart), saves time, saves my sanity. End of story. 🙂 I was actually amazed at how many items are online and how specific it is to each thing. They did a fabulous job with it! ?? (And the rate thingy wouldn’t let me give this 5 stars. Don’t be sad. Just know the truth in your heart ?)
Right! I love how many items are available in it too. So helpful!
Dani
Omg. Click List is a total game changer. I no longer dread grocery shopping with my toddler!
WOW!! This looks gorgeous! I will have to make this soon!! Also, Click List is probably the best idea ever!!
This Slow Cooker Minestrone could not look more delicious!!!!
This looks so warm and filling! Perfect for dinner on chilly fall nights!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! This looks d-lish. Love the pesto!
Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you told me about Click List! I used it today and it will be my go to method for big grocery trips from now on!
Looks great, thanks! What size can of tomatoes?
14.5 oz! Just updated thanks for the catch 🙂
you’re most welcome – and thanks for the update and reply!