Minestrone Soup
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 8 plus | 15minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 4-6hours |
|
|
Ingredients
- 1large brown oniondiced
- 3 celery sticksdiced
- 2 or 3 carrotsdiced
- 2 or 3 potatoesdiced
- 1handful green beanstop & tailed & cit into 1cm pieces
- 2 zucchinisdiced
- 1/4 savoy cabbageshredded
- 1/2cup olive oil
- 3 beef stock cubescrumbled
- 2400g cans whole tomatoeswith the liquid
- 1400g can cannellini beansor butter beans
- 45g butter
- salt
- pepper
- 1 Parmesan rindoptional
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot and gently sauté the vegetables in the order they appear in the ingredients list allowing about 3 minutes between each addition.
- Slice the tomatoes into random chunks in their cans and add them to the vegetables (don’t use cans of diced tomatoes as you will lose the rustic appearance of the homemade soup).
- Add the parmesan rind at this stage making sure to scrape away the thin outer layer of wax. (the parmesan rind will add extra flavour to the soup but definitely not essential)
- Fill the pot almost to the top with water and add the stock cubes and salt & pepper to taste (you may need 2 or 3 teaspoons of salt as it is a large pot). Bring to the boil, then lower to a very gentle simmer and cook with the lid on for 4 to 6 hours. The flavour in this soup will continue to develop. The longer you cook it, the stronger the flavour.
- About 10 minutes before serving, add the cannellini beans and the 45g of butter. Taste test for seasoning during the cooking *You can wrap your Parmesan rind in plastic and store it in the freezer for future use
Recipe Notes
Don’t discard your Parmesan when its finished. When you have extracted all of the cheese from the block, place the rind in a freezer bag and freeze for use in your minestrone.