We love this quick and easy tortellini soup, which is made with store-bought tortellini pasta, a garlicky broth, and lots of veggies. It takes about 30 minutes to make!
I’m always thrilled when this vegetable tortellini soup is for dinner. I enjoy so many of the soup recipes on Inspired Taste, but this one truly delivers on the comfort food front! It’s hearty and delicious.
Feel free to use your family’s favorite tortellini in the soup, which means you can try out different fillings to find what you love most. For more hearty soups, check out our vegetable soup, creamy chicken noodle soup, or this Italian wedding soup.
Key Ingredients
- Tortellini: I’m a fan of cheese-filled tortellini, but feel free to use your favorite kind. You’ll find a wide variety of fillings at the store, including vegan options. Small ravioli is a great substitute! Or, if you don’t have tortellini and only have pasta, use that (the base of the soup is still delicious)!
- Veggies: I pack this hearty soup with onion, carrot, zucchini, garlic, and kale (or spinach).
- Tomato Paste and Spices: Tomato paste adds color and flavor to the soup, while the spices bring incredible flavor. I use Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper flakes. The pepper flakes are optional but provide a touch of heat.
- Broth: For a vegetarian tortellini soup, use vegetable broth. If that’s not a concern, chicken broth works great.
- Fresh Herbs: I love fresh herbs, especially parsley and dill, stirred into the soup before serving.
How to Make Tortellini Soup
Making tortellini soup is super easy! I start by cooking chopped onions and carrots until they begin to soften. Then, I stir in plenty of minced garlic, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and chopped zucchini. These ingredients are added later since they cook faster than the onions and carrots.
Next, I pour in the broth and let everything simmer until the veggies are tender. Once they are, I stir in the tortellini and a generous amount of torn kale leaves. It only takes a few minutes more to cook. The kale should be wilted, and the pasta should be tender.
Finally, I season the soup to taste. Add a splash of cream or non-dairy milk if you like a creamy soup. I also love tossing in a handful of chopped fresh herbs if I have some on hand. Fresh dill or parsley both taste lovely in this soup. And that’s it! You’ve got a simple, delicious tortellini soup. It’s the best!
Easy Tortellini Soup
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
We love this quick and easy tortellini soup recipe, which uses store-bought pasta, garlicky broth, and veggies. I keep it vegetarian and buy cheese-filled pasta for this soup, but you can use whatever you love. Consider spinach, sausage, chicken, and even vegan fillings. Most (if not all) are available in larger grocery stores here in the US.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, sliced
2 medium zucchini, chopped
4 medium cloves garlic, minced, 1 heaping tablespoon
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, omit if sensitive to spice
8 cups (1.8L) vegetable broth or chicken broth
1 (8 to 10oz) package tortellini
1 small bunch kale, thick stems removed and chopped
Splash cream or non-dairy milk, optional
Handful chopped fresh herbs like parsley or dill
Dash fish sauce, optional
Parmesan for serving, optional
Directions
1Heat the oil in a large pot, such as a Dutch oven, over medium heat. Toss in the onions and carrots, and then cook, occasionally stirring them, until they soften, about 5 minutes.
2Stir in the zucchini, garlic, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper flakes, and cook for one minute.
3Pour in the broth, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cook the soup at a low simmer until the vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
4Stir in the tortellini and kale, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Turn the heat to low and stir in the milk/cream (this makes the broth a little creamy, but you can leave this out if you prefer plain broth).
5Taste the soup and season with additional salt as needed. For extra flavor, add a few dashes of fish sauce (optional). Serve with chopped fresh herbs and grated parmesan cheese scattered on top (optional).
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Vegan tortellini soup: To make this soup vegan, look for a vegan tortellini (Kite Hill makes one) and omit the cheese and fish sauce.
- Fish sauce: This is optional but adds a lovely flavor to sauces and soups like this tortellini soup. Two to three dashes season the soup nicely. Think of fish sauce as salt on steroids. It doesn’t make the soup taste fishy but makes the flavor pop.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We did not include optional ingredients and assumed regular (not low-sodium) vegetable broth.
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Great recipe, far more tasty than expected. I followed the recipe with the exception of using spinach not kale. It was delightful and will make again and again. Thank you.
Soup was excellent. My only ingredient change was subbing baby spinach for the kale. Since the recipe indicates it serves 4, I reduced the amount of broth to 5 cups.
This soup was delicious. I needed to make substitutions only because of the lack of ingredients. I subbed frozen spinach for kale, and used precooked egg noodles for the tortellini. I knew I would have leftovers so I added the noodles to each bowl instead of adding to the pot of soup. This prevents the noodles from getting too mushy for leftovers. Very easy to make. We loved it!
This quick and easy recipe is perfect for a midweek supper. I did add the suggested Thai fish sauce as it makes such a difference (I used a tablespoon).
Served with homemade sourdough bread it went down a treat! Thank you Adam & Joanne! 😘
Made this tonight and it was delicious!! I did not add the pepper flakes and added 8oz of cooked ground Italian sausage which has a little bit of a kick to it. This soup is a keeper. Thank you for the recipe.
I made this soup today. We loved it. And it’s so simple to make. I even had all the ingredients on hand. Thank you.
That’s amazing, Lily! So happy you enjoyed it!
Excellent recipes, thank you.
Love all the recipes from this site. I will make the soup in a couple days when it cools off a bit. It’s about 105° here in San Diego. All the recipes are easy and tasty and they have never let me down. Thanks.
I haven’t tried the soup yet, but they all look so good! I want to try them all!
Look forward to these recipes. So delicious easy to reproduce due to the clear instructions. Well done!! Thanks Anjuli x
I love this recipe for a dinner made in short order that has a boatload of good nutrition and flavor.
Hi Barbara, Thanks for coming back and letting us know! So happy you enjoyed it.
Easy and delicious I just used cooked pasta and perhaps a sqirt of ketchup for a little sweetness.
I haven’t made this yet, but I do have a question. Is the kale you’re using dinosaur kale? I’ve read that dinosaur kale is deeper in color and more tender than regular curly kale and doesn’t take as long to cook. If I only have access to regular curly kale would I need to saute it first so that it will be tender in the amount of cook time your suggesting?
I do use lacinato (dinosaur) kale in the video, but curly kale is fine! It should cook in the same amount of time.
This Tortellini Soup was fabulous! I made a few additions/changes…added mushrooms and rotisserie chicken, used chicken broth instead of veggie (didn’t have it on hand), spinach instead of kale. The addition of fish sauce was spectacular. Thank you for this delicious alternative to basic chicken soup. This will become a regular in our menu lineup.
Made this tonight. It is AMAZING as is. No changes! This soup is better than restaurant soup. In my 3rd bowl, i added julienned pepperoni just to see how it changed the flavor. I like it better without, but the flavor was complimentary.
Made this tonight. It is AMAZING as is. No changes! This soup is better than restaurant soup. In my 3rd bowl, i added julienned pepperoni just to see how it changed the flavor. I like it better without, but the flavor was complimentary. Compliment this dish with Italian Cooking Music on Pandora.