This creamy vegetable soup with tortellini is warming, wholesome and a great way to use up leftover veggies.
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What do you need to make a creamy vegetable tortellini soup?
- Tortellini
- Creme fraiche
- Vegetables - I use carrots, onion, garlic, celery, sweetcorn and peas
How do you make chunky vegetable soup?
First, prepare your veggies. Peel, dice and measure all your ingredients to make the cooking process easier. In this recipe we use onion and garlic. When adding these ingredients to soups, it's always a good idea to sauté them slightly beforehand to reduce the bitterness, and bring out their sweet flavor. Heat some oil in a pot and start by sautéing onion for a few minutes until it starts turning translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Then add garlic and cook for another minute while stirring.
Add carrots and celery, and cook while stirring for a few minutes until all the pieces have started to cook. They should be warm on the outside. Add the water and buillion cube, cover with a lid and leave to boil for about 10 minutes. Then, add the tortellini, the frozen veg and the creme fraiche, stir to combine, cover and leave for another 5-10 minutes.
The exact cooking time will vary based on the temperature of your water and size of the veggies, so keep an eye on it.
Can you make this soup ahead, or can you freeze tortellini soup?
You can absolutely store leftovers in the fridge. It will last up to 3 days, and can be reheated in the microwave. I would not recommend freezing this soup as is. The creme fraiche might split when you defrost the soup, and the tortellini would be mushy. If you're looking to make this ahead as a freezer meal, you can follow the instructions for making the soup base and cooking the vegetables, but leave the creme fraiche and tortellini out. Then, when you're ready to eat, defrost and reheat the soup. Stir in creme fraiche, add the tortellini, and follow the instructions from there. You can also leave the creme fraiche and tortellini out for a chunky, clear vegetable soup.
What to serve with this soup
This nice and creamy vegetable soup with tortellini can be served alone, or with some good bread. It's quite filling, so I would recommend serving this soup as a main dish, rather than as a starter.
Tips and substitutions
About cooking time - The cooking time will vary based on the size of your veggies. You can boil water in a kettle before adding to the soup to reduce the time it takes for the soup to start boiling. The temperature in the soup is reduced when adding the frozen veg. To prevent this you can leave the frozen sweetcorn and peas in room temperature to defrost, and then drain off the melted icy water. This is particularly recommended if you choose to substitute or add larger frozen veggies, like frozen broccoli florets, as they will add more ice to the soup and therefore need longer time to cook.
Adding meat - This soup is very quick to make. Therefore meat will not have the time to cook properly from raw. This soup would go perfect with many types of meat, like pulled pork, chicken pieces, leftover roast or sausage chunks. Make sure to cook the meat thoroughly beforehand, and add to the soup in the last few minutes of the cook time.
Using different veg - You can absolutely omit, add or replace some of the veg used in this recipe. Use whatever you have in your fridge, or your family's favorites. This soup has a pretty low cook time because everything is diced into small pieces. You can add larger chunks of veg, like cauliflower, broccoli, or simply larger pieces of carrots, but this will increase the required cook time. I think this soup would also be great with potatoes, leeks, sweet potatoes, swede, parsnips or kale.
Using leftovers - This recipe is great for using leftovers. If you have leftover cooked or baked veg or meat, add it to the soup in the last minutes of the cook time. Vegetables that have already been cooked only need to be heated through in the soup.
Recipe
Creamy vegetable soup with tortellini
Ingredients
- 300 g tortellini I use spinach and ricotta
- 1 l water
- 1 buillion cube
- 3 medium carrots
- 2 celery sticks
- 1 onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 300 ml creme fraiche I use reduced fat version
- 100 g frozen sweetcorn
- 100 g frozen green peas
Instructions
- Peel and dice all the vegetables.
- Heat a splash of oil in a large pot. Add onion and saute for a few minutes until translucent.
- Add garlic and saute for one minute.
- Add diced carrots and celery, and saute for a few minutes while stirring.
- Add water and buillion cube, cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 5-10 minutes until the carrots are halfway cooked.
- Add the tortellini, creme fraiche, sweetcorn and peas. Stir to combine and cover with a lid again.
- Cook until all the veg is heated through, and the pasta is cooked, about 5-10 minutes.
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