We eat a LOT of soup. So I make sure that they are packed with nutritious ingredients, are visually appealing and will satisfy even the biggest appetite since soup often is the main course for our dinners along with good bread and a glass of wine. My Minestrone Soup is no exception.
This delicious soup is filling with bright flavors, but it won’t weigh you down. It comes together fairly quickly and is a great make-ahead soup since the flavors only improve with reheating. While I like to cook my own beans, feel free to use a good quality canned bean that has been rinsed well and drained.
Below you will find how I made it this time, but it is riffable. If I don’t have zucchini, I might add green beans. No kale? Use cabbage. No fennel or you don’t like fennel? Use celery. Don’t eat vegan sausage, leave it out or use meat sausage. Cheese on top? Yes, please. No leeks? Use onion etc.
Make it according to my recipe and it will be delicious. Switch it up a bit and it will likely still be delicious. I happened to have made my own vegetable stock so I used that, but you could use a store-bought vegetable or chicken stock. My version is vegan but it doesn’t have to be if you aren’t into it.
I always make a big pot of soup because I frequently give some to my sister and it is a wonderful quick lunch during the week. My husband and I both like to bake bread, so that is a must for us. But you can buy good bread too. No judgment. And because there are so many vegetables and so many varieties, really nothing else is needed to round out the meal. Except, perhaps some baked apple for dessert!
Minestrone Soup will keep up to a week in the fridge and the flavors only improve with reheating. If it gets a bit thicker than I like, adding a bit of broth is all that is needed when reheating it.
Give this soup a try. You will not be disappointed. And if you enjoy this soup, check out the many other soup options on my blog.
RECIPE
Yield: About 6 to 8 servings
INGREDIENTS
3 Tablespoons Avocado, Canola or other vegetable oil
About 1.5 quarts or liters of stock
3 cups of cooked beans (I like cannellini and cranberry or borlotti beans but you can use Great Northern or Navy Beans)
2 large leeks, cleaned and sliced, white and light green parts
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into rounds (I like vegetables that I can see and identify, but if you prefer to dice your carrots, that works too.)
1 small bulb of fennel or 2 to 3 stalks of celery, diced or sliced
28 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes that you crush with your hands (The tomatoes – not the can!)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 strips of lemon peel – yellow part only
1 bunch Dino Kale (de-stemmed and coarsely chopped or torn) or 3 to 4 cups of coarsely chopped cabbage
1 to 2 small to medium zucchini, cut into half-moon slices about 1/4-inch thick
1 piece of Parmesan rind (Optional, but recommended unless you are vegan)
2 medium potatoes such as Golden or Red, peeled and cut into large dice
2 Bay leaves
1 rounded teaspoon each: dried oregano, basil and thyme
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste (How much you use will depend on if you are salted or unsalted stock or broth as well as personal taste. You can always add more but it is difficult to remove salt once added.)
1/2 to 3/4 cup of a small pasta such as Tubetti
12 to 14 ounces sausage (I like Field Roast Brand Italian Sausage which is vegan, but you can use any sausage you like cooked according to the package instructions.)
DIRECTIONS
Heat the oil in a 6 quart or larger stock pot or Dutch Oven over medium heat. Add the sliced leeks and about 1 teaspoon of salt. Sauté for about 8 minutes or until the leeks are translucent and just showing some color around the edges.
Add in the celery or fennel, potatoes and carrots and sauté until the vegetables begin to soften.
Now add in the beans, parmesan rind, tomatoes and tomato paste as well as the bay leaves.
Next comes your stock or broth. Give everything a good stir and bring to a boil. If scum rises to the top, remove that and then add in the dried herbs and lemon peel. Cover the pot and bring the temperature down to a simmer. Allow this to simmer for 1.5 hours undisturbed.
Meanwhile slice and brown your sausage in a pan with a little oil and set aside. It will be added to the soup at the end of the cooking.
After the soup has simmered for 1.5 hours, add in the kale, zucchini, pasta and sausage. Cook for another 10 minutes or so until the kale has wilted and the pasta is cooked.
(A trick I learned to keep the pasta from expanding forever as it sits in the broth is to take a couple of ladles of the hot stock and pour it over the pasta while the soup simmers. Then the pasta and any residual broth are returned to the pot of soup at the end. If you are feeding a crowd and will eat everything up, you can skip this part, unless you are making the soup ahead.)
Taste and adjust your seasonings prior to serving. Serve with some freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago or eat as is. Enjoy!
