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:
Peel and dice the onion and carrot – place in a pan
Dice the celery and courgette – add to the pan
Roughly dice the cabbage – Cut in half, cut out the core (a triangle), slice down, then across into a dice – add to pan
Add the spinach – you can roughly chop if large leaves or leave baby leaves whole
Crumble over the stock cubes
Add the tinned tomato, bay leaf and the oregano
Season – salt, pepper
Cover with 1 litre of the water, mix up all the veg and put on the lid
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
Then add the pasta, and a further 250ml water and cook for a further 20 minutes, until the pasta is soft.
While the soup is cooking, grate the parmesan and chop the parsley, ready for plating up
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
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
Plate up into a bowl and garnish with the parmesan and fresh parsley