Hearty Minestrone Soup

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2.47 out of 5, with 15 votes)
Loading ... Loading ...
Posted on April 1, 2011

Most of the time when I make soup I tend to make creamier blended ones (like my spinach and chickpea soup, or various creamy broccoli style soups) so the other day I decided to try making a more brothy type soup. Minestrone sounded perfect, nice bits of vegetables and pasta swimming in broth. But for some reason I can’t have a pot of soup on the stove without adding every vegetable in the house (and in this case, a fair bit of pasta) so we’re going to go ahead and call this one less “brothy” and more “hearty.” But hey, at least it’s not blended!

Also it was delicious, so I think I can chalk it up as a success. The recipe I used claims that it is very similar to the Olive Garden version, which I don’t think I’ve had, but if you like that one hopefully this will hit the spot!

I didn’t really have to do much to “veganize” this, since it’s generally already vegan – I did use brown rice noodles to make it gluten free, though. As far as being nutritious this meal is definitely a winner – it’s got eight different vegetables, two different beans, and pretty much no fat, while managing to be super filling and tasty.

It’s also fairly simple – just chop up a bunch of vegetables, saute them in a big pot, add broth and more vegetables, and let simmer.

Once it’s simmered for a bit, throw in some spinach and your noodles and let them soften. That’s all there is to it! It does take maybe an hour, but most of that is just unattended simmering time – it really comes down to how fast you are at chopping vegetables with this one. It also makes a bunch so you can have a couple leftovers or even freeze it in individual sized portions and reheat it whenever you want.

So what are your favorite soups? I realized I haven’t posted very many soup recipes and I should probably make a couple more before winter is fully and completely over! Any suggestions?

Print
Hearty Minestrone Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yield: Makes 6-8 servings, and can be frozen and reheated.

Vegan, Gluten Free, Low Fat, Refined Sugar Free, Soy Free

Recipe adapted from Food.com.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup minced white onion (about 1 small onion)
  • 1/2 cup chopped zucchini
  • 1/2 cup fresh green beans, chopped into 1/2" pieces
  • 1/4 cup minced celery (about 1/2 stalk)
  • 4 teaspoons minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained
  • 1 (15 ounce) can small white beans or great northern beans, drained
  • 2 medium tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 cup carrot, minced or shredded
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp minced fresh basil
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 3 cups hot water
  • 1/2 cup red wine (optional)
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 4 cups fresh baby spinach
  • 2 cups small shell pasta (use brown rice or other GF pasta to make this gluten free)

Directions:

  1. Saute onion, celery, garlic, green beans, and zucchini over medium heat for 5 minutes or until onions begin to turn translucent.
  2. Add vegetable broth to pot, plus tomatoes, beans, carrot, hot water, wine, and herbs and spices. Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
  3. Add spinach leaves and pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until desired consistency

Comment on this post
 

If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Comments

8 Responses to “Hearty Minestrone Soup”

Trackbacks

Check out what others are saying about this post...
  1. Minestrone Soup « My Plant Based Family says:
    February 1, 2012 at 8:49 am

    [...] Garden, but I like to tackle a new recipe every week. The first recipe I stumbled upon was at Clean Green Simple and the pictures were AMAZING. I didn’t follow her recipe but after looking at her pictures [...]

    Reply
  2. Minestrone Soup « Cafe MJ says:
    July 24, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    [...] Inspired By cleangreensimple.com [...]

    Reply


Leave Comment

(required)

(required)