"very good"

"Outstanding One change I did was instead of 4 cups of tomato sauce I used - 15 oz. of tomato sauce and 1 cup of commercial spaghetti sauce."

"My fiance declared this minestrone 'better than Olive Garden's'. And I agree! What I did differently: crushed tomatoes for tomato sauce; fresh green beans; much more spinach (stemmed and chopped coarse, even tho I did use 'baby'); just two zucchini; ditalini pasta. What I will do differently next time: blanch the green beans; use one zucchini (even two was *plenty* for us); maybe another can of beans; maybe a can of whole tomatoes, broken up. I think keeping the pasta separate is key! I used the ditalini based on another reviewer's suggestion that ditalini holds up better in soups. I did make a second batch using red beans and didn't care for them much. They were smaller and mushier than the kidney beans. And one more note on the prep time: maybe I'm slow, but I spent an hour preparing the vegetables; much more than the thirty-five minutes indicated on the recipe. But, I did stem and chop the spinach and also used the fresh green beans. But the end result was well worth it!"

"This was delicious!! I was so excited to try it that I burned my mouth...lol, but it was still good and even my DH, who hates vegetables, finished his bowl and agreed that it was yummy. I love the fact that you can pretty much make it with whatever vegetables your family prefers. A very flexible recipe."

"Really like this...followed recipe exactly. The reason I gave 4 stars is because it needs a little extra kick, something to give the flavor more depth, to make you say, "YUMM!!!"...next time will add more wine and maybe some heat."

"I LOVE THIS SOUP! I forgot to add salt and it wasn't bland at all. It's just naturally delicious and flavorful. Yumm!"

"Very good basic minestrone....you can add or subtract whatever veggies you want. Thanks for the recipe."

"It was okay. Next time I will do equal parts chicken broth & tomato sauce. It was pretty thick. Needs to cook/simmer for a lot longer than stated to get the flavors together and cook the carrots. I liked all the veggies, but it needed tomato pieces too."

"LOVE this recipe. very filling yet healthy. instead of zuccini, we added potatos and an extra cup of water. Cant wait to have this again!"

"Love this recipe! It's easy to make and easy to fix to your liking. I used zucchini, corn, and carrots. I also added some mini turkey meatballs. Very hearty and satisfying. Overall something I will be making again."

"This is an excellent recipe. Doubled it for a big family group and all raved. Instead of canned green beans I used frozen Italian flat beans and used all chicken broth (instead of leaving part of the larger containers unused). don't think either substitution made any difference overall. Thanks for such a good recipe."

"This is a great soup recipe. It really does taste like the minestroni soup they used to serve at my favorite Italian restaraunt. I did add the red wine, and I feel it adds a depth that you cannot get with white wine. I also used all the tomato sauce plus one can of drained diced tomatoes. Next time I will add the entire bag of spinach. I know it was said before, but this makes a huge amount of soup. Do not cut down the recipe though, freeze half for later. Delicious. Thank you for posting. "

"Great soup that's really easy to make, you can interchange lots of veggies, and it's still really good. We omitted the pasta and added extra zucchini. Great recipe."

"So good! I added about ten small red potatoes and it was great! Awesome recipe!Thanks!"

"I made this soup for a bridal shower and everyone loved it. I did make a few changes based on what I had/preference - I used white wine instead of red, replaced 1/4 of the tomato sauce with crushed Italian tomatoes and replaced 1/2 of the zucchini with summer squash. I will be making this again!"