MINESTRONE SOUP WITH PESTO

Minestrone soup is a sure Mediterranean classic but when I started speaking about making it, the first reaction I got was surprisingly negative (*looking at the guy sitting next to me now and enjoying the soup wholeheartedly*). ‘Isn’t that the soup with some random vegetables floating around in a suspicious broth?’.. It probably didn’t help that my answer to that questions was yes, it kind of is but as per usual, I didn’t let any dubious comments to stop me. So I hit the Portobello Road market to get all the fresh produce that I needed in this recipe and totally proved him wrong. This soup is so delicious that it disappeared in record time. It is also very nutritious and filling with all the vegetables, beans and pasta.

CHOP CHOP CHOPPING

I know that for many people any recipe with a lot of chopping involved is an instant turn-off just because of the time it takes. However, in this recipe it really doesn’t take much time at all and once you’ve chopped all your vegetables the rest to do is just to add all your ingredients to a pan and let it simmer. In other words, the soup kind of makes itself so you can multitask while waiting for your dinner. And it honestly only takes about 30 minutes!

SERVE THE SOUP WITH PESTO

I made this soup with a tomato base to get a lovely rich flavour and added a basil pesto on top for some more aroma. Although the soup is tasty on it’s own as well, I must say that the pesto really elevates the flavours even further so I wouldn’t skip it, especially if you are making the soup for any special occasion.

MINESTRONE LOVE

I highly recommend this recipe for anyone who is not sure about minestrone soup. Or if you like me have someone mocking minestrone soup without better knowledge then you should definitely prove them wrong with this recipe. I don’t know how anyone could not like this 😉  You can also vary this recipe according to season by altering the vegetables you use.  I’m sure this soup works any time of the year but for us it was an instant hit on a rainy Monday.

I hope you enjoy this soup as much as we do!

Love,

Katja

MINESTRONE SOUP WITH PESTO

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Author: Antidote Kitchen

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 yellow onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 large carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1 courgette
• Spices (1tsp each): rosemary, thyme, oregano, 2 bay leaves, salt and black pepper
• 1 vegetable stock & 1L water
• 1 x 400g can cannellini beans
• 1 x 400g can red kidney beans
• 1 x 200g can green beans
• 300g pasta
• 30g fresh basil

Instructions

1. Finely chop the yellow onion and garlic cloves
2. Chop also the carrot, celery and courgette
3. Heat up a large pan over medium heat with 1 tbsp olive oil
4. Add the onion and half of the garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes until the onion turns translucent
5. Add the carrot and celery and sauté for another 5 minutes before adding the chopped tomatoes, courgette and all the spices
6. Prepare the vegetable stock by dissolving a vegetable stock cube in 1 liter of water, then add the stock to the pan
7. Drain and rinse all the beans and add to the pan, bring the soup to simmer and taste to adjust spices if necessary
8. Add the pasta and allow to boil gently for 10-15 minutes until the pasta is cooked
9. In the meantime, prepare the pesto in a food processor by blending the rest of the garlic with a big bunch of basil, 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt (you can add 1-2 tbsp water if needed to ease the blending)
10. When the pasta is cooked, take the pan off the stove and mix in some chopped fresh basil
11. Serve the soup with the pesto on top

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 Calories: 470 Fat: 4 Carbohydrates: 77 Sugar: 11 Fiber: 13 Protein: 20

3.5.3226