Vegetarian Minestrone Soup

Fall, my favorite time of the year is almost here, and that has me thinking soup.

This minestrone soup, the Italian version of vegetable is one of the most asked for family soup recipe.

If you ask twenty different people, you will get twenty different versions of minestrone soup.

What is minestrone soup, a pasta or  a soup? Minestrone is a thick soup of Italian origin, made with vegetables, often with pasta or rice, sometimes both. This is a vegetarian soup, most vegetables you have in your refrigerator work well in this soup. and if you leave out the pasta, gluten free, if you leave out the cheese vegan.

I have made it in all dietary forms, in one version I sauteed tofu, cubed it and added it in, delicious!!!!

When you make it, first saute the trilogies onion, carrot, celery, in this recipe I add a fourth Italian parsley then add the rest of the vegetables,  salt and pepper at this point so you don’t have bland tasting vegetables. add two times the amount of liquid as vegetables, then  add  marinara sauce.

In the summer, I made a lighter version  substituting pesto sauce for the marinara, adding  summer corn and peas. I tried to explain the recipe, but there really is no set recipe, start with the trilogy base, from that starting point, the combinations are endless.

My recipes are always customizable to fit your lifestyle and taste by adding or subtracting ingredients.

Cooking is meant to be fun and creative, so have fun, experiment and let me know if you try the recipes and what you think, that’s my favorite part!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

1 small onion chopped

1/2 cup Italian parsely

4 Tablspoons olive oil

3 carrots sliced

3 celery sticks chopped

1 each yellow and green zucchini sliced

1 cup each chopped spinach and broccoli

1 potato diced

1 cup mixed vegetables

1 can kidney beans rinsed

1 cup marinara sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat oil in soup pot

Add the onion, parsley, carrots, and celery

saute until opaque

Add the rest of ingredients except the pasta shells

Simmer covered until vegetables are crisp tender about 30 minutes

Add pasta boil 5 minutes longer

Garnish with Parmesan cheese…Enjoy!!!!