Easy Minestrone
An Italian classic, packed with nutritious beans and vegetables.
total time 35-40 mins
serves 4
A delicious and classic Italian thick soup packed with vegetables, beans, and pasta. For my version I’ve used cabbage, courgette, celery, carrot, and spinach. It of course starts with the base of a soffritto, which involves slowly cooking onions, carrots, and celery to release a delicious aroma used for the base of many sauces and stews in Italian recipes. From there we’ve added our vegetables, which you can adapt according to the seasons, along with the protein from the beans and carbohydrates from the pasta.
All you’ll need is:
2 tbsps olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 courgette, chopped
3 sticks of celery, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic
1/4 savoy cabbage, finely sliced/chopped (can use cavelo nero or just plain cabbage)
1L vegetable stock
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
100g mini pasta shapes (for example macaroni)
400g tin of cannellini or borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
2 large handfuls of baby spinach
1 tsp Italian seasoning
Pinch of red chilli flakes
Salt & black pepper
Zest & juice of 1/2 a lemon
Start by dicing all of your vegetables small. Then you can begin with your soffritto by frying off the onions, celery and carrot in the pan until soft and caramelised. You can take your time with this to add more depth of flavour, so feel free to cook for 20 minutes or more until they are totally caramelised. Add in the garlic and courgettes and cook for another 10 minutes. Your veg should all be deliciously soft and flavoursome.
Now you can mix in the savoy cabbage, tomatoes, stock, chilli flakes, and dried herbs. Bring all of these ingredients to a boil, add in your mini pasta and return to a simmer to cook for 10 minutes. My pasta of choice was macaroni but other great options are ditalini, small shells, and orzo. If you can’t get any of these you can use whatever pasta you have to hand, or even potato or rice!
Finally, taste test your soup and adjust the seasoning if necessary, then add in the lemon juice and zest. This adds a really delicious punch at the final stages - I use lemon a lot in my recipes for a reason! It works beautifully in Mediterranean cooking as it just enhances any flavours. Serve with toasted or grilled crusty bread.
INGREDIENTS
2 tbsps olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 courgette, chopped
3 sticks of celery, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic
1/4 savoy cabbage, finely sliced/chopped (can use cavelo nero or just plain cabbage)
1 litre vegetable stock
1 tin cherry tomatoes (can used plum tomatoes)
100g mini pasta shapes (any shape, just small)
1 tin of cannellini or borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
2 large handfuls of baby spinach
1 tsp Italian seasoning
Pinch of red chilli flakes
Salt & black pepper
Zest & juice of 1/2 a lemon
To ServeFresh parsley
Crusty bread
METHOD
Add the onions, celery and carrots to the pan and cook until softened for around 10 minutes. Next add the garlic and courgettes and cook for a further 10 minutes.
Stir through the savoy cabbage, then add the vegetable stock, tinned tomatoes, chilli flakes and dried herbs. Season with salt and pepper.
Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 mins, then add the pasta, spinach and beans, and cook for 5 mins more.
Adjust seasoning, add the lemon juice and zest, and serve with a sprinkle of fresh parsley and warm crusty bread.
notes
Only add the pasta if you intend to serve the soup immediately. If you’re batch cooking, it is probably advisable to leave out the pasta and add when you are reheating to serve.
It is a crowd-pleaser that is packed with nutrition from all the vegetables - use your own beans of choice for variety.
