Calories and protein in a bowl of minestrone, with and without olive oil
Also called Italian vegetable soup.
The short answer
1 bowl, about 300 g, normal olive oil
150 kcal
5.5 g protein
Fat 5.5 g · carbs 22 g · fibre 4 g · Vegetarian
Portion: a large soup bowl. Calculated from USDA FoodData Central
A big bowl for few calories, with chickpeas and a little pasta adding some protein.
With and without olive oil
The same 1 bowl, changing only the olive oil the vegetables start in. Normal is about 3.5 g in this portion. A little halves the recipe’s fat and a lot doubles it, so in a portion of the same weight a lot comes out a little under double. These are the four levels the app asks about, with the same numbers.
| Olive oil | Added | Calories | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|
| None | 0 g | 120 kcal | 5.5 g |
| A little | 2 g | 140 kcal | 5.5 g |
| Normal | 3.5 g | 150 kcal | 5.5 g |
| A lot | 7 g | 180 kcal | 5.5 g |
What moves the number
- Chickpeas cannedabout 40 kcal
- Pastaabout 30 kcal
- Olive oil (the olive oil the vegetables start in)about 30 kcal
The recipe behind these numbers
Raw ingredient weights in one 1 bowl, scaled from the batch recipe in the Homekcal app’s dish table, with normal olive oil. Water, salt and spices add almost no energy but are listed so the recipe is complete. If your version has more of something, the numbers move with it.
| Ingredient | Weight | Calories | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canned tomatoesUSDA: Tomatoes, red, ripe, canned, packed in tomato juice | 43 g | 5 | 0.5 g |
| OnionUSDA: Onions, raw | 11 g | 5 | 0 g |
| CarrotUSDA: Carrots, raw | 11 g | 5 | 0 g |
| CeleryUSDA: Celery, raw | 11 g | 0 | 0 g |
| ZucchiniUSDA: Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, raw | 21 g | 5 | 0.5 g |
| PotatoUSDA: Potatoes, flesh and skin, raw | 21 g | 15 | 0.5 g |
| Chickpeas cannedUSDA: Chickpeas (garbanzo beans, bengal gram), mature seeds, canned, drained solids | 29 g | 40 | 2 g |
| PastaUSDA: Pasta, dry, enriched | 8.5 g | 30 | 1 g |
| GarlicUSDA: Garlic, raw | 1 g | 0 | 0 g |
| WaterUSDA: Beverages, water, tap, drinking | 171 g | 0 | 0 g |
| SaltUSDA: Salt, table | 1 g | 0 | 0 g |
| ParmesanUSDA: Cheese, parmesan, grated | 3 g | 10 | 1 g |
| Olive oilUSDA: Oil, olive, salad or cookingThe olive oil the vegetables start in | 3.5 g | 30 | 0 g |
What we could not match
Stand ins and assumptions in this recipe that a person still has to check.
- Many minestrones use cannellini or borlotti beans. The recipe here uses chickpeas, which are close but not the same.
How this was worked out
This is the same dish the Homekcal app logs, from the same table. Each raw ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its per-100 g values in USDA FoodData Central, the batch is added up and divided by the cooked weight it makes. Calories are rounded to the nearest 10 and grams to the nearest gram, because a standard recipe is not your recipe. These are calculated values, not weighed or lab tested meals, and home versions vary a lot.
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2026. fdc.nal.usda.gov. Public domain (CC0).
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