Contributed by Carlota Sanches
Minestrone is a classic Italian soup, usually made with different vegetables, white beans and pasta. There’s not just one recipe for Minestrone, it’s made in many different ways across Italy, some will use pasta, others rice, others won’t make it without tomatoes. However it’s main idea is to make a rich soup made with seasonal vegetables availabe at the time of cooking. A perfect recipe to have closely if you are getting a Vegbox!
This time making Minestrone I have used, carrots, parsnips, celery, white cabbage, onions and leeks. But I have made it with tomatoes, potatoes, swede, red cabbage and a little bit of courgette as well. It’s easy to prepare and when you get the hang of it, it’s easy to improvise with the organic seasonal vegetables available.
Ingredients
- 1 large onion
- half a leek
- 3 celery sticks
- 4 big carrots – for this recipe I used 2 yellow and 2 orange
- 2 parsnips
- white beans
- half of a small white cabbage
- dried oregano
- sea salt
- olive oil
Preparation method
- Chop the onions and the leeks.
- In a pan add some olive oil.
- When the olive oil is warm add the onions and the leeks – while the leeks and onions are cooking chop the rest of the vegetables.
- Let the leeks and onions cook until tender and add the rest of the vegetables with a pinch of salt.
- Mix the vegatbles together and let them cook for a little bit with the olive oil, no more than 5 minutes.
- Cover the vegetables with water , bring them to a light boil and let them cook until tender – I personaly don’t like the vegetables too soft so I would leave them to boil for about 5 minutes and then lower the heat to simmer.
- When the vegetables are ready add the cooked white beans and the dried oregano. You can serve it with parmesan on top as well, or make some home made croutons with left over bread to give the soup even more texture.
