Hi all - I have been a terrible contributor recently. Its not that I haven't been cooking; it just that between the new job, new dog, and the holidays, I haven't made time to share. Hopefully, the new year and the crappy winter weather will inspire me to be a better contributor.
Today's recipe was a simple one for minestrone. Be forewarned - there is a lot of chopping, but it is a great way to get in lots of vegetables. The recipe I started from is below. I made a few substitutions based on what I like and had on hand. I love that about soups - unlike say, baking, with soup you can measure entirely by eyeball, add/subtract/substitute almost anything within reason, and if you forget something, you can usually add it in later without any problems.
First, I used beef broth instead of water or stock since I had some leftover from last weekend's spicy pepper beef stew (will try to post on that later when I have time t transcribe the recipe). I also used V8 left over from that stew in place of the tomato puree. I added some green beans with the carrots because they looked good at the store. I used canned garbanzo beans because soaking for 2 hours and cooking for another one seemed like a lot of work when the canned variety are almost as cheap as the bagged dried variety. Since I still try to limit refined carbs, I left out the pasta (making my version not 'real' minestrone, but whateva). In its place, I added some diced chicken sausage that I had leftover. And I added crushed red pepper flakes because they make everything better.
I topped the soup with the parsley, which seemed a little wasteful given I had to buy more parsley than I could use in a year. However, it really did add something. I also shaved a little Parmesan on to it the bowl. Yum! My only other advice is don't leave out the wine. I almost did, but once I added it, the soup definitely tasted better. Enjoy!
Minestrone
Recipe By: Mollie Katzen, "Moosewood Cookbook"
Serving Size: 4 (crazy talk - more like 6)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
5 cloves crushed garlic
1 cup celery -- minced
1 cup carrot -- cubed
1 cup eggplant -- cubed (Or zucchini)
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup fresh parsley -- chopped
1 1/2 cups cooked garbanzo beans (Or pea beans)
1/2 cup dry pasta
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1 teaspoon basil
2 cups tomato puree
3 1/2 cups water or stock
3 tablespoons dry red wine
In a soup kettle, saute garlic and onions in olive oil until they are soft and translucent.
Add 1 tsp. salt, carrot, celery and eggplant.
(If you use zucchini, add it with the green pepper.) Mix well.
Add oregano, black pepper and basil.
Cover and cook over low heat 5-8 minutes.
Add green pepper, stock, puree, cooked beans and wine.
Cover and simmer 15 minutes.
Add tomatoes and remaining salt.
Keep at lowest heat until 10 minutes before you plan to serve.
Then, heat the soup to a boil, add pasta, and boil gently until pasta is tender.
Serve immediately, topped with parsley.
NOTES : This recipe calls for cooked pea beans or garbanzo beans (chickpeas).
If you use chickpeas, begin soaking them 3 1/2 hours before you make the soup.
After 2 soaking hours, cook them in boiling water for about 1 1/2 hours - until comfortably chewable.
If you use pea beans, you needn't soak them, but give them 1 1/2 -2 hours to cook.
In either case, if you cook the beans in plenty of water, save the extra water to use as stock for the soup.
You'll have a fuller-flavored, higher-proteined minestrone.
