Minestrone Soup
A wholesome, deeply comforting soup crafted from slow-simmered stock, aromatic garden vegetables, and fresh herbs, served with crusty bread.
Ingredients
- • 2 onions (peeled and chopped)
- • 4 large carrots (peeled and chopped)
- • 1 red pepper (deseeded and chopped)
- • 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
- • 8 decent sized mushrooms
- • 2 courgettes (roughly diced)
- • 1 handful frozen peas
- • 1 handful frozen sweetcorn
- • 4 spring onions (chopped)
- • 2 medium potatoes (peeled and roughly chopped)
- • 1 stick celery (chopped)
- • 2 tins chopped tomatoes
- • 2 tbsp tomato puree
- • 2 vegetable stock cubes (or 1 Chicken and 1 Veg)
- • 50 g pasta (you can use any small pasta, or spaghetti broken into short lengths)
- • 1 tin cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
- • 2 tsp Italian herbs
- • sea salt
- • freshly ground black pepper
- • pinch fresh basil (chopped )
- • 1 tsp parmesan (grated - optional)
- • low calorie cooking spray
Preparation Steps
Spray a large pan with a decent amount of low calorie cooking spray, then add the chopped onion and garlic
Cook on a medium heat until soft, but not coloured
Add all the ingredients except the pasta, cannellini beans, spring onion, salt and pepper
Stir well, and add enough water to just cover the ingredients
Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes or until the veg have softened
Scoop out about half of the cooked veg and use a stick blender to blitz the soup left in the pan
Check the seasoning and adjust if necessary, then return the reserved veg to the pan and add the pasta, chopped spring onions and cannellini beans
Allow to simmer gently for another 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick to the pan
Check the pasta is cooked, check the seasoning once again then serve with a sprinkling of chopped basil or Italian herbs and (if you want) a teaspoon of grated parmesan.