MINESTRONE SOUP

This is an Italian classic - a fantastic, nourishing soup that makes a whole meal! This recipe serves 2

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 small onion (approx 100g when chopped)
• 1 carrot (approx 140g when chopped)
• ½ stick celery
• 100g white cabbage
• 35g spinach
• 1 small courgette or ½ large (140g)
• 10g - 15g vegetable stock powder
• 1 x 400g tin tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• ¼ tsp dried oregano
• 1 litre water (hot) + 250ml for later
• 50g macaroni (or alternative small pasta
• 50g tinned cannellini beans
• 50g tinned sweetcorn
• 15g parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp parsley (chopped)
• ​Salt & pepper

UTENSILS:

• Chopping board
• Vegetable peeler
• Med pan
• Mixing spoon
• Ladle
• Measuring jug
• Soup bowls

 
METHOD:

1. Peel and dice the onion and carrot – place in a pan
2. Dice the celery and courgette – add to the pan
3. Roughly dice the cabbage – Cut in half, cut out the core (a triangle), slice down, then across into a dice – add to pan
4. Add the spinach  – you can roughly chop if large leaves or leave baby leaves whole
5. Crumble over the stock cubes
6. Add the tinned tomato, bay leaf and the oregano
7. Season – salt, pepper
8. Cover with 1 litre of the water, mix up all the veg and put on the lid
9. Turn on the heat and bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are soft  - approx. 20 minutes
10. Then add the pasta, and a further 250ml water and cook for a further 20 minutes, until the pasta is soft.
11. While the soup is cooking, grate the parmesan and chop the parsley, ready for plating up
12. When the soup is cooked, turn off the heat, add the beans and sweetcorn, mix in and leave the soup off the heat for the flavours to infuse
13. Check the seasoning and adjust to taste with salt, pepper – you can crumble a bit more stock powder if you feel it needs it to deepen the flavour – mix well
14. Plate up into a bowl and garnish with the parmesan and fresh parsley