Wednesday Wind-Down: Healthy Minestrone Soup

Minestrone soup is a really simple recipe, but I still don’t know any restaurants where I can get a really good version of it.  Very often the vegetables are overcooked and the pasta a little soggy.  It’s not something I bothered with very often until I came across a recipe for healthy Minestrone in a Sunday newspaper supplement: this version is very good.

So how is it healthy? Minestrone is not exactly junk food in the first place, being full of vegetables, but the pasta can make it stodgy.  This version replaces the pasta with cannellini beans, making it less heavy on carbs.

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin cannellini beans
• 1 carrot, chopped into fine slices or small chunks
• 1 courgette, chopped into small wedges
• 1 teaspoon basil
• ½ teaspoon ground red chillies (optional)
• Black pepper and salt to taste

Instructions

1. Sweat the onion in some olive oil till soft.
2. Add in the can of tomatoes and spices.  I add chilli because I think it makes the soup more interesting (and if I’m being honest, I’m addicted to it), but you could leave it out if you don’t like heat.  Stir and allow to simmer for a few minutes.
3. Add in the carrots and let them cook for about 10-15 minutes until they start to become tender.
4. Add in the courgettes (they will cook more quickly than the carrots, so if you put them in too soon they will become overcooked).  Once the courgettes are tender, add in the drained cannellini beans, which just need to warm through – about 5 more minutes.

Done! You should now have a lovely thick stew-like minestrone. If you prefer a more soup-like consistency, you can blend the tomatoes and onions together at the end of the second step and add a little stock or hot water to thin it out.  And of course you could use any vegetables that you like: classic minestrone often comes with that unspeakable horror celery, and you could also add in peas or green beans.

Grate some parmesan or melt some mozzarella over the  top, and serve with crusty bread.

And finally, a quick question for our readers: anyone know an Italian restaurant in Ireland that does really good minestrone?