Minestrone Soup

Since you were a little kid you were told, "Eat your vegetables!" Well if you make this soup, you won't have to worry about getting scurvy anytime soon.


Minestrone is a fancy word vegetable soup. It's Italian, it's hearty, and it's delicious. Think of this soup as "Clean out all the vegetables in the fridge soup." Whatever you have is fair game. It might not make it traditional Italian minestrone, but who cares. Every vegetable you throw in the pot equals more flavour.


MINESTRONE SOUP
I'm not going to write out a recipe for this. You don't need one. It's simple. Get some vegetables, chop them up, cook them in a pot, add some stalk and water, bring to a simmer, then eat.


In this soup I used carrots, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, a can of black beans, sweet potatoes, celery, garlic, a can of diced tomatoes and some rotini pasta.


Chop your vegetables into approximately the same size so they cook evenly. Heat some olive oil in a large pot and slowly sweat off the vegetables until tender and soft, but not browned. At this point, add your can of beans and tomatoes and let them cook and come to temperature. Next add one box or can of vegetable stock (chicken stock works good too). Top it up with some water until you feel you have the right amount  and bring it to a simmer. Add your pasta. Check your seasoning. Now is the time to make sure you have the right amount of salt and pepper. I added some dried oregano, basil, and bay leaves to it for more flavour.


Garnish the soup with some parmesan cheese, and serve with some warm bread or a roll.


You can serve this soup to the biggest meat eater you know and I guarantee that they won't notice that it is vegetarian.