Minestrone Soup: The Veggie Leftover Luxury
October 27, 2005
I love to make a good Minestrone or basic Fajole a day or two before I return to the grocery store to do some shopping for the next 2-3 weeks worth of food. True to my philosophy of using all your rotten veg, “waste not, want not” with this easy and delicious soup.
You will need the following: Cookware: One large soup pot.
Ingredients:
- one large can of whole stewed tomatoes (Muir Fire Roasted Organic are the best),
- 1/4 diced white onion,
- 3 cloves minced garlic,
- 2 diced carrots,
- 3 diced celery stalks,
- 1/2 diced bell pepper (of whatever color),
- one can of kidney beans,
- handful basil (fresh is best), fresh flat leaf Italian parsley,
- 2 c vegetable stock,
- 1 c white wine (optional),
- olive oil, one chile piquin pepper, thyme and dried basil.
- 2 c of cooked small pasta shapes (keep separate, do not add to soup until you serve it)
Step One: In the large soup pot on medium, add the olive oil (3 tbsp), crushed garlic clove (1 or 3 to taste), diced ¼ white onion, diced carrots (2), diced celery (3), diced bell pepper (1/2 a bell is usually enough). Cook this until veggies are translucent. Add 1 cup of wine and cook for another 5 minutes.
Step Two: Add 2 cups of veggie stock. Veggie stock should always be in your fridge. I prefer the box of veggie stock from Pacifica (NOT the fat free in this brand) or Imagine Organics. Simmer this while doing step three.
Step Three: Open the large can of whole tomatoes (the crushed or diced are always flavorless, so its better to go with whole). Pull each tomato out one by one and chop it up your self. Add the chopped tomatoes and the tomato broth from the can to the soup pot. Drain and rinse the beans, add them to the pot.
Step Four: Add 1 cup of water, 2 tsp of dry basil or 2 tbsp of fresh chopped basil, 1 tsp of thyme (optional), 4 tbsp of fresh chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste, 1 crushed chile piquin (again, its optional). Add 2/3 cup of elbow pasta or my favorite, tubetti pasta from DeCecco. Cook this for 8 minutes and then remove from the heat (if you don’t, the pastas will continue to cook until it becomes so large and tasteless that it has ruined your soup).
Serve hot in small bowls with a slice of bread and a small side salad if you like. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top. I promise that this soup is really basic so anyone can make it, even you. It makes about 5-7 servings. For more advanced folks, I recommend cooking a chicken breast (bone in) in a separate pot. Pull the meat from the bones and filter the chicken stock (the water you boiled the chicken in) through a fine civ and add it to the soup (about 2-3 cups worth). If you like olives, you can also add green or purple kalamata olives (chopped) to the soup.
Whew!
