MINESTRONE SOUP

Mourish, comforting and a great diet soup too!

INGREDIENTS

Tinned tomatoes

White cabbage

Onions

Carrots

Leeks

Courgettes

Celery

Chicken stock cubes

Sea Salt / Seasoned Sea Salt (A.Vogel Herbamare, see link below)

http://www.avogel.co.uk/avogel-world-new/avogel_product_stories/herbamare.php 

Freshly ground black pepper

Provencal dried herbs

Freshly chopped parsley

I've not mentioned any quantities as I do it by eye & I make a huge pan of it but I have listed the ingredients in order of amount used, i.e. use more tinned tomatoes and white cabbage than the other vegetables, I use 2 very large tins of tomatoes but then I make a large quantity. There's no hard and fast rules as to the amounts of vegetables you use, once you start chopping and putting the vegetables in the pan you'll soon assess what you need more or less of.  I usually start with a whole cabbage, carrots and onions and reserve some of those 3 vegetables to make coleslaw at the same time. 

Click here for the coleslaw recipe

METHOD

First of all you need a very big pan, if you haven't got one then don't chop quite as many vegetables!

Finely chop all the vegetables.  I use a food processor and you can have it done in minutes, otherwise you'll have to chop by hand which is fine, it will just take you longer.  If you are using a food processor use the pulse button so that you don't end up chopping them too fine.

Place all the chopped vegetables into your pan with a little olive oil and butter, not too much, and place on a low heat with the pan lid on to 'sweat' the vegetables until they are soft, stirring occasionally.  It won't take long so keep your eye on it as you don't want the vegetables to catch and start burning.  Then add the tinned tomatoes and top up with water.  Add your stock cubes, dried herbs, salt & freshly ground black pepper.  The amount of stock cubes used obviously depends on how much liquid there is but don't over season, you can always add more later.

Bring it up to the boil and then turn down the heat to a simmer.  At first the liquid will be very red but as it simmers it will change colour to a more orangey red as it cooks. Keep an eye on it as you may need to add more water from time to time.  I actually simmer it for about an hour.  Towards the end of the cooking add some freshly chopped parsley, reserving some for a garnish.

To serve garnish with chopped parsley and some freshly grated parmesan. Make sure it is fresh parmesan not that awful stuff in a tub that smells terrible!  Serve some warm crusty bread too.

TIP:  This is a perfect diet soup (minus the parmesan and bread), you can eat as much as you want, it's comforting and it fills you up as well as being very nutritious.

As you're already chopping the vegetables it doesn't require much extra effort to make coleslaw at the same time.  A great lunch is minestrone soup followed by ham and coleslaw sandwiches.

As I make a huge pan it is too big for the fridge so it sits on my stove on a low simmer so everyone can just help themselves.  If you leave it out overnight make sure you bring it to a fast boil in the morning to kill any bacteria but I think you'll find it won't last long!  Alternatively you can always freeze some of it.