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This super simple Healthier Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini Vegetable Soup is the perfect fall dinner…great for nights when you’re craving Italian, but want something warming and healthy too. A mix of vegetables, simmered with Italian seasonings, a splash of wine, kale, and cheese tortellini. Finish each bowl off with an extra sprinkle of cheese and serve with crusty bread. It’s hearty, full of greens, and so delicious. Great for just about any night of the week. Plus the leftovers the next day make for the best lunch!
As promised…a new slow cooker recipe to start off the week. And a healthier one too. But don’t worry, it’s still creamy, cozy, and of course, delicious. I mean, it’s October, I wouldn’t share a non-cozy recipe at this point in the year. Cozy is always the way to go when the weather begins to turn cooler.
To be completely honest, I don’t love all soups. To me, a dinner soup needs to be hearty. It needs to be brothy, but it also needs texture, carbs, and preferably some cheese on top too. French onion? Yes – yum. Hearty, thick chili? Of course. Ramen with double the noodles? Yes, 100%.
But a brothy soup with just a few vegetables just doesn’t do it for me, which brings me to this soup. It’s vegetable soup, but it’s not your average vegetable soup. This one is creamy, cheesy, and made with not just vegetables, but cheese tortellini too.
It’s all the things I love in a bowl of soup, yet made on the healthier side too. Promise you guys, this one is good, and kid-friendly too!
Here is the story:
This soup just sounded good to me. I’ve never done an Italian-style tortellini soup, but oddly I’ve done a Mexican-inspired tortilla soup with tortellini. Not sure where I got that idea, but it sure is different. Nothing like this bowl of tortellini soup.
When I presented the idea of a vegetable-based tortellini soup to my sister-in-law, she gave it a double thumbs up. Granted Lynds loves a bowl of soup, but she’s also picky about her them. So instead of second-guessing my ideas, like I always do, I took her double thumbs up and I ran with it. And the verdict? I am very, very happened I listened. This is such a delicious bowl of warming soup. And I love that I was able to make it a touch healthier than the versions you might find in a restaurant.
And my favorite part…well, aside from the taste…this is actually the easiest soup to make. You can cook it low and slow in the slow cooker, or speed things up by cooking it in the instant pot, or you can even cook it on the stove-top.
To make this tortellini soup:
I love to start this off on the stove-top. I know it’s annoying, but I really think cooking your vegetables with the dried herbs and spices before slow cooking adds so much wonderful flavor. If you have an all-in-one browning slow cooker then you can do this all in the slow cooker bowl. I literally just hit purchase (before starting this post) on this all-in-one All-Clad slow cooker with a browning function. I cannot wait for it to arrive this week!
Cook the onions with a mix of my favorite Italian spices…the dried herbs, fennel, and smoked paprika. They are all KEY here. They add so much flavor, almost like Italian sausage, but minus any of the meat.
Once the onions have been seared, add everything to the bowl of your slow cooker. Then add tomato paste, a good splash of dry white wine, and plenty of vegetable broth. Cover and cook low and slow.
I like to just let my soup cook all day long. The house smells incredible as this simmers away in the slow cooker. But, as I mentioned, I’ve also included directions for the Instant-Pot and stove-top variations, in case you’re in a crunch.
Once the soup has finished cooking, before serving, stir in a few large handfuls of kale, cream or milk, parmesan cheese, and the cheese tortellini. Cook another few minutes and then that’s it.
Easy. EASY. But yet so delicious.
I’d highly recommend serving this soup with a side of crusty bread. If you own the HBH Super Simple cookbook, there’s a really good, really easy, no-knead bread recipe that’s perfect to pair with this soup.
If you’re planning to enjoy this soup leftover, be sure to first remove the tortellini from the broth before refrigerating. That way the tortellini won’t soak up all the broth. Then just add them back in before serving.
Alright, and with that, I’m going to leave you all to it. If your Monday night needs some warming soup, this should be it. I’m actually beyond excited to make this again today on Instagram stories. It’s the perfect fall soup.
Cannot wait!
Looking for other fall soup recipes? Here are a few ideas:
Creamy Wild Rice Chicken Soup with Roasted Mushrooms
Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar and Zucchini Soup
Instant Pot Pesto Zuppa Toscana
Lastly, if you make this Healthier Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini Vegetable Soup be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Absolutely delicious and so easy to make! We used the insta pot version and it was a breeze. 10/10, perfect fall soup!
Hey Margo,
Fantastic! So glad to hear this turned out well for you, I appreciate you making it! Happy Friday:) xT
We used frozen spinach instead of Kale. Would recommend using fresh spinach instead. We just don’t like Kale. We also used 2% milk, as heavy cream add way too many calories for me. It was good and next time will use fresh spinach.
Hey Deanna,
Happy Wednesday! So glad your family enjoyed this dish, thanks a lot for giving it a try! xT
We added browned italian sausage, sweet potato (only had 4 small carrots) and white beans. The additions made it very filling. Love the generous use of herbs!
Hey May,
Happy Sunday! I appreciate you trying this recipe and your feedback, so glad it was enjoyed! xx
Did you take sausage out of its casing and then brown or did you slice it and keep casing?
If you don’t mind me asking, how much sausage, sweet potato and white beans did you add to the recipe? I love the sound of these additions.
Maybe the calories got calculated based on the entire recipe? It does seem pretty high per serving.
Hey Gail,
That is definitely a possibility! Please let me know if you give this recipe a try, I hope you love it! xT
Do you really use 1/4 CUP of oil in this? TIA!!! 🙂
Hi Bekah,
Yes, that is correct. Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xT
Absolutely loved this soup and will certainly make again. Rich flavors and great variety of herbs and spices.
Hey Ellen,
Thanks so much for making this recipe and your comment, so glad to hear it was a winner! Have a great Thursday! x
Hi Tieghan, based on your experience how many calories would you say a bowl is? 1300 seems extremely high for a healthy recipe
Hi. I’ve loved this recipe for years. When I used to make this, the recipe called for frozen tortellini. Any idea when to add that to the Instant pot now… is it before the pressure is turned on? Thanks
Hi Kate,
Thanks so much for making this recipe!! It actually never called for frozen tortellini:) That should be fine for you to use though, I would still add in step 3. I hope this helps! xx
Making this now….and my husband popped downstairs from his office to find out what smells so amazing!
I’m going to try the 5 ingredient beer bread, too.
Dreaming of fall in Texas!
Yay!! Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try, Susan! I hope it’s delish as well as the beer bread! xT
This is my go to soup. Absolutely delicious!!!
Thanks so much, Sam! Love to hear that this recipe is always enjoyed, I appreciate you making it so often! xT
This was absolutely delicious! I had my doubts, but it was great. Served with baked french rolls. Only change was to add a chopped zucchini because I had one to use up.
Hey there,
Awesome! So glad to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it! xT
Hello,
So excited to make this soup tomorrow! What size crock pot do you recommend?
Thank you,
Ellen George
Hi Ellen,
I used a 7 quart pot. Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT
Did the printing format change for your recipes? The new format isn’t as pretty as the other one. Or did I do something wrong on my end?
Hi Jessica,
You did not do anything wrong:) We have a new printing format. Thanks so much for sharing your feedback! xx
is this recipe freezer friendly?
thanks 🙂
Hey Lucy,
Sure, that would be just fine for you to do! Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT
So delicious. I used spinach instead of kale just because that’s what I had on hand and I added some chopped turkey sausage. The flavor of the soup was amazing and it was so easy to make. Highly recommend.
Hey Valerie,
Wonderful! I am so glad this recipe turned out nicely for you, thanks so much for making it! Happy Sunday! xT
Is this really 1300 calories per serving?! 😟
Hi Tara,
I always recommend that if the nutritional information is important to you, you use your own personal calculator. Ours is automatic and controlled by google. It’s not something we’d prefer to be using. We are required to. I’m sorry for the trouble, we do our best! Hope you enjoy the recipe! xT
Hi Tieghan, based on your experience how many calories would you say a bowl is? 1300 seems extremely high for a healthy recipe
I’m still uncertain about the number of calories per serving. 1300 is alot for healthy soup. I used a conversation table for kcal and looks like it is 130000. This cant be right No clear answer given in any replies. The soup is delicious but I guess I will have to calculate calories ingredient by ingredient. ☹️
Hi Renee,
I always recommend that if the nutritional information is important to you, you use your own personal calculator. Ours is automatic and controlled by google. It’s not something we’d prefer to be using. We are required to. I’m sorry for the trouble, we do our best! Hope you enjoy the recipe! xT
Pretty flavorful and easy to follow – thank you!
Hey there,
Happy Monday! Thanks a lot for giving this recipe a go and your comment! Love to hear that it turned out well:)
Hi, would spicy Italian sausage work in this recipe? I’ve made it without and it’s delicious. Thanks
Hey Marina,
Sure, that will work nicely for you! I hope you love this recipe! xT