The past few days I’ve had a cold – the kind that makes your head feel like it’s 100 pounds, where all you want to do is lay on the couch and watch movies so your brain doesn’t explode. I’ve been eating a ton of fruits and veggies and doing all the normal cold remedies to try to kick it ASAP. But there’s one thing in particular that I want when I’m under the weather, and that’s homemade minestrone soup. Packed with tons of veggies and vitamins, this soup is delicious and nutritious – and luckily I have tons of leftovers!
I typically make this soup in a slow cooker, but this was no longer an option when my crock pot crapped out on me earlier. Plan B: throw the ingredients in a large pot over a burner instead. I found out today that this method works just fine too.
Homemade Minestrone Soup
Makes 5 servings
- 6 cups of vegetable broth
- 1-28 oz can of diced tomatoes
- 1-15 oz can of white beans, drained (I used garbanzo beans)
- 2 carrots, peeled & chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 4 oz of dry short shaped pasta
- 1 medium zucchini, chopped
- 2 handfuls of fresh spinach
- 2 cups frozen green beans
- 2 TBSP chopped basil
- 1/2 TBSP olive oil
- 1/4 yellow onion, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt, pepper, thyme, sage, and any other seasonings to taste
- Grated parmesan cheese, optional
In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add minced onion and cook until lightly browned.
Next, combine broth, tomatoes, beans, carrots, celery, seasonings, and bay leaves in a pot. If
using a crock pot, put on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. When cooking over a burner: gently simmer for about half an hour.
15 minutes before you want to eat the soup, add the pasta, spinach, green beans and zucchini to the pot. Simmer until pasta is cooked al dente. Remove from heat, sprinkle with cheese, and enjoy!
Nutrition stats per serving: 200 calories, 1 g fat, 9 g protein, 39 g carbs
I’ll leave you with my hilarious puppy. Harley is in love with her blanket and keeps wrapping herself up in it. Case in point, this is how she was hanging out earlier:
She then proceeded to get up and walk around with it still around her.
She’s quite an entertaining dog to have around!
I am new to your website and very much like a lot of the creativity in many of your recipes. However, I read that you are a vegetarian, but in this recipe you state to use parmesan cheese (optional). You are aware of the fact that parmesan cheese can only be made using animal (calf) rennet…if not, this is a FYI…so sad but true, that great tasting parmesan is an animal product. 🙁
Hi Jerilyn, thanks for reading! I just responded to your comment on my other post, but wanted to reply to this recipe post as well: I’m not sure where you live, but actually, there are some brands out there that carry parmesan cheese with only vegetable rennet. The grocery store I go to, called Frazier Farms, carries their own line of organic cheese, including parm, and one brand that I love that has organic parm is Organic Valley. You can check out their parmesan here: http://www.organicvalley.coop/products/cheese/parmesan/