This Homemade Alphabet Soup is the best year-round soup that can be made in under an hour! It's warm, comforting, and sure to fill you up. Packed full of fresh vegetables, alphabet pasta, and tons of flavor, it's a healthy copycat version of the nostalgic canned recipe.
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📋 About the Recipe
- Quick and easy! This is a simple soup recipe that can be made in under an hour.
- Healthy for the whole family! Your whole family will love this veggie-packed alphabet soup, from the rich, flavorful broth to the fun alphabet shaped pasta. If you prefer a more protein-focused soup, try my similar chicken minestrone soup instead!
- Great any time of the year. Usually soups are a winter-time meal, like this hearty chili. However, this alphabet soup recipe utilizes plenty of fresh produce, making it a great staple any time of the year, especially when you or a family member are feeling under the weather.
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Onions, carrots, celery, green beans, and garlic - Each vegetable adds flavor and texture to the soup. If you can't find fresh green beans, you can use frozen!
- Chicken or vegetable broth - I like to use low sodium broths so that I can control the amount of salt in the soup myself. Use chicken or vegetable broth, depending on what you prefer or what you already have on hand.
- Petite diced tomatoes - I like to use petite diced tomatoes, instead of regular diced. They are smaller cut and more closely match the size of the other diced vegetables.
- Alphabet pasta - A fun and nostalgic addition to help make this soup resemble the canned alphabet soup. If you can't find alphabet pasta in the store, you can use other small pastas, like ditalini, orzo, or acini di pepe. If you have leftover acini di pepe, you can make this Italian wedding soup too!
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
- Fresh green beans: Use frozen green beans if your store is out of fresh.
- Great northern beans: I like the size and texture of these beans, but you can use black beans, kidney beans, or navy beans if you prefer.
- Alphabet pasta: Use another small pasta shape, like ditalini, orzo, or acini di pepe, if you can't find alphabet pasta.
📓 Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add olive oil. Then, add onion, carrots, celery, and green beans. Cook about 5 minutes, or until the onions start to soften.
- Stir in garlic. Cook another 1 minute.
- Pour in great northern beans, broth, and diced tomatoes. Season with bay leaves, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
- Bring soup to a boil. Decrease heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the alphabet pasta and cook according to the package instructions, generally about 8 to 9 minutes.* Drain pasta.
- When soup is done simmering, turn off heat, remove the bay leaves, and stir in parsley.
- Add a spoonful of alphabet pasta into individual bowls, then ladle soup on top. Serve soup hot with crusty bread or crackers.
❄️ How to Store
To store: Allow alphabet soup to cool completely before scooping it into air tight containers. Store pasta in a separate container. Place both in the refrigerator and store up to 5 days.
To freeze: This soup freezes perfectly! Freeze in freezer-safe containers up to 6 months. Pasta doesn't freeze well, so boil the alphabet pasta before eating, after the soup has been defrosted.
To reheat: Remove soup from the freezer and defrost in the refrigerator for about a day or two. Spoon into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave until warmed through.
You can also reheat soup in a pot on the stovetop. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes to cook through. Add pasta to the soup after it has been reheated.
🔍 Recipe FAQs
Alphabet soup is a childhood favorite soup! It became popular during the 1900's as a quick and easy, kid-friendly soup, delivered straight to your kitchen table right from a can. It is whimsical and fun, advertised as a way to "play" with your food.
The canned version made by Campbell's has a tomato-based broth, green beans and other vegetables, as well as the memorable alphabet shaped pasta.
Alphabet soup tastes similar to vegetable soup. It has a tomato-base with loads of vegetables, simple Italian-style seasonings, and pasta for added texture.
💭 One More Tip
I like to cook the pasta in a separate pot for best quality, but you can cook it right in the soup if you prefer.
However, keep in mind that cooking the pasta in the soup might result in mushy or overcooked noodles. They will also continue to absorb the soup broth even when stored together, so you might need to add extra broth before serving.
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
Homemade Alphabet Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1 cup diced carrots (about 2 carrots)
- 1 cup diced celery (about 3 celery ribs)
- 1 cup fresh green beans (cut into 1-inch pieces)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 (15.5 ounce) can great northern beans, rinsed and drained
- 5 to 6 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 (14.5 ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup alphabet pasta or other small shaped pasta
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add olive oil. Then, add onion, carrots, celery, and green beans. Cook about 5 minutes, or until the onions start to soften.
- Stir in garlic. Cook another 1 minute.
- Pour in great northern beans, broth, and diced tomatoes. Season with bay leaves, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
- Bring soup to a boil. Decrease heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the alphabet pasta and cook according to the package instructions, generally about 8 to 9 minutes.* Drain pasta.
- When soup is done simmering, turn off heat, remove the bay leaves, and stir in parsley.
- Add a spoonful of alphabet pasta into individual bowls, then ladle soup on top. Serve soup hot with crusty bread or crackers.
Notes
- *You can cook the pasta in the soup broth, but I like to do it separately and then add it to individual bowls so it doesn’t turn mushy.
- If you can't find alphabet pasta, you can use any other small pasta like Ditalini, Orzo, or Acini di Pepe.
Nutrition
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Iris Barnett says
This recipe was easy to follow and delicious. Seeing all of the ingredients laid out led me to get mine ready too, and that was very helpful. Thanks, Alana!
Alana Lieberman says
So glad this recipe worked well for you! Thanks for the review, Iris!