Minestrone my way

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I have to confess that my inspiration for cooking this minestrone was seeing organic quinoa and corn flour pasta in my local supermarket. I don’t tend to cook much pasta as the bought stuff is made with heavily processed flours and the home made stuff is a real faff. Fun, but a faff! Also, pasta doesn’t bring enough of a nutritional punch for me. Bit like the expression “a lot of hot air” in other words, lots of calories, not much of the good stuff. I have nothing against calories and in fact don’t believe in counting them, but what I consume needs to be contributing to the health and well being of my temple. Minestrone though, only has a small amount of pasta which contributes to the overall result of the soup really nicely.

Serves 4

500g can cannellini (white kidney) beans or equivalent home cooked

3 tbsp olive oil

2 onions (roughly chopped)

2 cloves garlic (crushed)

3 large fresh ripe tomatoes (coarsely chopped)

3 medium carrots chopped

4 sprigs local celery chopped (2 normal)

1.5 l water

60g fresh spinach

75 g quinoa/corn penne pasta (or just regular)

salt and pepper

lots of grated parmesan (please, from a piece of real cheese not pre-grated)

The simplicity of this recipe, both its ingredients and cooking method, belie the deliciousness that is the result. Truly  a taste treat and very satisfying.

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Soften the onions in all the olive oil and then add the garlic, carrots and celery. Gently buy neurontin overnight delivery cook for a few minutes stirring from time to time to make sure they are well mixed and coated in the oil. Add the tomatoes and then the water. At this point in order to turn this into something somewhat “pagan” you could add a ham bone (maybe from your Christmas ham) but otherwise proceed with the pure vegetarian option. Traditional minestrone has got an underlying current of salted meat, so if you must, maybe fry up some bacon and add that but keep it very little maybe 50g or less. Season with salt and pepper being mindful if you’ve added bacon or whatever else.

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Gently simmer for 20 minutes or so until you are sure all the vegetables are cooked through. Then add the beans, and the pasta. Cook for a further 5 minutes and stir in the spinach. I didn’t bother to even chop my spinach but my leaves were predominantly baby ones. Your call.

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While waiting for the minestrone to cook, you could grate the parmesan in readiness. When you have dished up this lovely concoction, sprinkle on the parmesan. I used the coarse side of my grater as I think its nicer to see the grated bits rather than have it all become emulsified. Mark and I had this just on its own as it is substantial enough.

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4 Comments

  • Reply
    Sue Ross
    March 7, 2014 at 8:13 pm

    Looks delicious and I am sure tastes as good too!

    • Reply
      Germaine
      March 7, 2014 at 11:07 pm

      Can’t wait for you to get home to start trying some of this stuff….

  • Reply
    Flossy
    March 10, 2014 at 5:47 pm

    Reminds me of the Lucian Bouillion! But a healthier one….

    • Reply
      Germaine
      March 10, 2014 at 6:00 pm

      I look forward to hearing your comments when you try it…..

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