Healthy, Delicious and Easy Italian Cupboard Soup

Italian Cupboard Soup is healthy, delicious and easy! It is one of my favorites, the perfect hearty soup for the winter months. With a delicious combination of boneless pork chops, diced tomatoes, cannellini beans, and parmesan cheese, it is filling and comforting when you need a simple soup recipe with a short ingredient list. Pair it with some slices of crusty bread, you can add it to your list of easy soup recipes that your whole family will enjoy.

When I meal plan and put pork chops on our menu, I always plan to set aside our leftover pork chops for this recipe. Combining the pork with other pantry staples, I get a filling dish that can easily serve as another meal for our family. It also easily stretches if you need to feed more people. Simply add canned tomatoes, white beans, fresh spinach leaves, chicken stock, and corn, and you add 2-3 more servings!

The ingredients include one can of corn, two cans of diced tomatoes (I used no salt added here), one can of chicken broth (reduced sodium), and two cans of Great Northern Beans, along with your diced onion and diced pork chops. If you have salt included in your canned items, just add less salt when you sauté the onion and pork in a large Dutch oven. For this particular night, we had three leftover thick cut chops that I defrosted, so that’s what we used.

At the end of cooking time, you can add 2-3 cups of fresh spinach leaves and top with shredded Parmesan cheese and fresh cracked black pepper.

Italian Cupboard soup can be made in advance and simmer all day, if you have time but it can also be made about half an hour before dinner and still be perfect. It also makes great leftovers as the flavors deepen over time, perfect for easy lunches. You can also easily make this delicious soup in an Instant Pot to save a lot of time.

Italian Cupboard Soup leftovers

Italian Cupboard Soup is also a great way to use up leftover pork chops. If you have bone in chops, add the bone into the broth and just remove before serving. It will add even more flavor to the soup. Also, if you have a Parmesan rind, drop it in while simmering. It will add more depth to the recipe.

Can I make changes to the recipe?

Of course! The spinach component is optional, but of course, it boosts the nutritional value and adds a beautiful pop of green to the soup. The red from the tomato, the green from the spinach and the white from the beans make the colors of the Italian flag! You could sub in fresh green beans for the spinach leaves, if desired.

You can always swap the white northern beans for another variety. Black, kidney or pinto would work just as well (just make to rinse and drain black beans, if you choose those). If you don’t have pork, you could try chicken. In fact, it would be a great way to use up a rotisserie chicken! Another hearty green like kale could be a nice substitute for spinach.

You can also swap out the protein for ground chicken, chicken sausage, ground beef, or Italian sausage for a different flavor. Add some red pepper flakes for a bit more heat, if you desire! You can also add al dente elbow pasta for another delicious soup recipe.

Add a green salad and some crusty Italian bread to make an amazing winter meal. If you need more ideas for meal planning, hop over here to grab my tips for meal prep. Also, sign up my free email with a month full of recipes and meal ideas for a busy family on the go!