"GREAT RECIPE! I have made this a couple times now and love it. I followed suggestions from other reviews and made the following changes: used hot italian sausage, 3 cloves of garlic, added 1 can of chicken broth, 1 small onion diced, 2 celery stalks diced, 1 can white kidney beans (drained and pureed), 1/2 cup uncooked orzo pasta and 1 tea crushed red pepper. Brown sausage, celery, garlic and onion in dutch oven. Add broth, tomatoes, carrots, crushed red pepper and pepper and simmer 1 hour uncovered. Add pureed kidney beans and cook another half-hour. Add zucchini and can of great northern beans and cook 15 minutes. Add orzo and cook 5 min. Add spinach and cook another 5 min. Add extra water if too thick. Serve with shredded romano cheese on top. The most important change is the addition of the orzo pasta. It really made the soup delicious and filling. Thanks for such a great recipe!"

"Recipe perfect as written! Changed nothing. Hubby and I LOVED it...it is much heartier than most veggie soups."

"There is a reason so many people have reviewed this recipe.....because it is amazing. I could not believe how good it turned out and everyone just loved. It will definately be a staple in my home. Followed some other reviewers sugesstions; add onion, doubled garlic, used a little extra beef broth (low sodium), cut out the salt and added mushrooms. Served it over orzo."

"I made this last night and it was fantastic! I added an extra can of broth as a lot of others suggested and substituted a cup of uncooked pasta shells for the beans. I am looking forward to the leftovers tonight!"

"This is a simple and delicious go to soup. I took one of the suggestions and added small shell pasta. It kind of tastes like a REALLY good minestrone, but with sausage. It's very flavorful and stores well."

"I hate to rate a recipe I've altered but this is a good base. I added onion, celery, greenbeans,while browning the sausage. Small shell pasta, kidney beans instead of great Northern, 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp oregano. Everything else stayed the same."

"I made this last night, used 4 sweet sausage from CostCo, 2 bx's chicken stock, large onion, 3 cloved of garlic, 2 cups cooked w-w pasta, tbl spoon Italian spices, one can chppd tomatoes, one can small white beans. It was so de-lish I even had some for breakfast! Mahalo SallyJun!"

"So good! I left out the zucchini only because I didn't have any. Added an extra 2 cups of broth (I used vegetable broth, because that is all I had). Was fantastic! Bet the leftovers will be better today - but I missed out on them, Hubby already took them with him. Definitely a keeper! Great because you can adjust it to what you have on hand. Thanks so much!"

"AMAZING! Added orzo, another can of tomoatoes and beef broth, italian spices and some crushed red pepper. Woweee is this good!"

"So good!! Increased garlic, added an onion. Accidently used crushed tomato (28 oz). Broke some spaghetti up and added it -- worked great. Used frozen spinach. Can't mess this soup up! Will make again!"

"This soup was AMAZING and very easy to make. My brother, who doesn't even really like Italian food, even liked it. I recommend serving with some thick, crunch garlic bread. Very filling, makes enough for lunch the next day too!"

"This is a great basic recipe that can be customized with whatever you have on hand. I made it with a mix of hot & sweet Italian sausage that I removed from the casings and browned. I used black beans because that's what I had. I made this more like a "stoup" -- a little thicker than a soup, thinner than a stew -- and mixed in a bag of Success brown rice just before serving. Family loved it!"

"AMAZING!!! One reviewer remarked that this recipe has alot of "wiggle room"...perfectly put. My amendments were: ground pork in place of sausage, used up the left over spaghetti sauce, added mushrooms, pinto beans, sweet red peppers, diced onions, and whole wheat pasta. We added a sprinkle of parmesan for garnish. We are huge soup fans and will be eating this ALOT. Over 20,000 people have saved this recipe to their recipe box...ALL of them will be glad they did!!!"

"I made this last night and while it was indeed a good soup (love the spinach in it) I just felt that it was missing *something.* My husband agreed. Not sure what though. I will be making it again and playing with the recipe to see if I can make it suit our tastes better."

"Great Recipe for a cold day. I loved it!"