Minestrone soup recipe

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Minestrone soup – it’s a thick Italian soup from seasonal vegetables. Combination of many different vegetables makes this soup very tasty and colorful. Through the process of slow roasting of onion, celery, carrot and fennel, minestrone gets on an incredible flavor.

There are many ways to cook minestrone. For example, some recipes contain sauce pesto or wine as an ingredient. So you could change this recipe at your discretion. It all depends on your taste and according to the vegetables you have in the house. You could use vegetable or meat stock instead of tomato juice. For vegetarian version – exclude bacon. For those who want even more dietary (light) version – exclude beans, potato and pasta.

You could add into minestrone pumpkin, asparagus or green beans, or any of your favorite seasonal vegetables which you have at home. Don’t be afraid to improvise! Minestrone it’s a soup for creative persons.

Ingredients:

• 1 big sized potato, peeled  and finely diced*
• 1 big sized onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1 big sized carrot, peeled and finely diced
• 1 big sized red paprika, deseeded and finely diced
• 200 g (7 ounces) fennel, trimmed and finely diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 red chili pepper, deseeded and finely sliced
• 350 g (¾ pound) celery leaf stalks, trimmed and finely diced
• 150 g (1 cup) green peas
• 300-350 g (¾ pound) zucchini, trimmed and finely diced
• 1 x 400 g (14 ounces) tin white beans, drained
• 1 x 400 g (14 ounces) tin tomatoes diced
• 1 medium bunch of fresh basil, separate leaves from the stems, and finely chop everything
• 70-100 ml (1/3 cup) olive oil
• 1 liter (2 pints) tomato juice (or water, or meat/vegetable stock)
• 250 g (9 ounces) bacon, finely sliced
• 100-300 g (about 1 cup) wholemeal pasta, optional
• Salt, ground black pepper, Parmesan cheese to taste
• 1-2 liters (1-2 pints) hot boiled water

* all vegetables should be diced about ¼ inch side

Minestrone soup video

Let’s get started!!!

1. Put diced tomatoes into a blender and shake them well.
2. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan (4-5 liters) on a medium high heat. Add bacon and fry about 2 minutes. Put garlic, onion and fennel. Stir and fry two minutes more. Add chili pepper, basil stems, carrot and celery. Thoroughly mix, reduce the heat to a minimum and stew about 5 minutes.
3. Put tomatoes and potato, stir and stew 10 minutes more. Pour tomato juice into the saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook about 10 minutes. Add zucchini, green peas and paprika. Thoroughly mix and simmer about 5 minutes. Put white beans and pour hot boiled water. Add salt and ground black pepper to taste and cook 5 minutes more. Remove from the heat, cover with cap and let minestrone rest for 15-20 minutes.
4. Cook pasta. In medium saucepan bring water to the boil on a high heat. Add 1 teaspoon salt and put pasta. Mix well, so pasta doesn’t stuck to the bottom and cook 3-5 minutes or more (see instruction on the package). Finely chop basil leaves.
5. Serve minestrone soup with pasta if desire. Sprinkle with basil leaves and grating Parmesan cheese.

Bon appétit!!!

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