Recipe: Hearty Minestrone Soup

Hearty Minestrone Soup

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Although Spring is around the corner I am still craving big bowls of hearty nutritious soup. Minestrone is one of my all time favourites and given the chance I could eat the whole pan! I posted the above image on instagram and got a couple of requests for the recipe so thought I would share

This hearty Minestrone recipe is Vegan but can be easily adapted to suit meat eaters, or gluten free diets. I have included details of where to add the pancetta, and obviously just replace Pasta with Gluten free pasta.. simple

It really is a very simple recipe.

Ingredients

• 200 g cannellini or borlotti beans, fresh or dried and soaked overnight (or a tin of beans)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 large onion
• 2 Garlic cloves, crushed
• Optional..... 60g Pancetta , finely chopped
• 2 sticks celery, cut into 1cm slices
• 1 carrot, cut into 1 cm slices
• 1 potato diced
• 2 teaspoons of tomato puree
• 400g tin of tomatoes
• 6 fresh basil leaves, torn
• 2 liters of stock
• 2 courgette cut into 1.5 cm slices
• ¾ cup pasta shells
• ¾ cup fresh sweet corn (or frozen)
• 60g green beans, cut into short lengths
• 150g Kale , Spinach or Chard
• 3 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• Tobasco
• Optional...... Pesto

1) Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water overnight. Drain and rinse (A tin of beans would work just as well)

2) Heat the oil in a pan and add the garlic and onion (if adding pancetta add now as well) and cook for 8 -10 minutes until softened

3)Add the celery, carrot and potato to the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato puree, tomato, basil and drained beans. Season with pepper. Add the stock and bring slowly to the boil. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for about 1.5 hours

4) Add the remaining vegetables, parsley and pasta. Simmer for 8-10 minutes. Check for seasoning and adjust to taste.

5) Serve with a shake or two of Tobasco and crusty bread..... or a dollop of Homemade Pesto