Easy Minestrone Soup
The mother of all vegetable soups! This easy minestrone soup a healthy, diet-friendly, family friend soup recipe.
Equipment
- 1 Large (5.5qrt/5L) dutch oven or stock pot
- Good quality kitchen knife
- Chopping Board
- Serving bowls and cutlery
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 40 g butter 1.5oz
- 2 brown onions finely diced
- 3 carrots finely diced
- 3 celery sticks finely diced
- 2 zucchinis diced
- 120 g green beans 4.5oz, chopped into 2cm/1inch pieces
- 250 g white potatoes approx 9 ounces, peel and dice potatoes
- 800 g tin tomatoes 28oz, or two 400g/14.5oz cans
- 3 beef stock cubes
- 1 litre water approx 4 cups
- parmesan cheese to serve
Instructions
- Heat olive oil and butter in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium to high heat (note 1)
- Add the onions, carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes, or until onion is soft.
- Next, add the green beans and zucchini and cook further 2 minutes.
- Finally, add the potatoes and give a good stir.
- Crumble stock cubes over the vegetables, then add the water and tins of tomatoes.
- Stir well, season with salt and pepper.
- Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, or until vegetables are cooked and soup is thick. (note 2)
- Serve with grated parmesan, extra salt and pepper and toast or fresh bread and butter.
Notes
Make sure you do all the prep prior to starting cooking. You want your vegetables to be chopped fairly small to reduce cooking time. Vegetables, stock, water and tomatoes should all be ready to go prior to heating olive oil and melting butter.
Note 1 - I mean large, I used a 5.5qt (approx 5L) Dutch oven and my liquid was right to the brim.
Note 2 - cooking time can vary, I went for about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, and upped the temperature a bit at the end to thicken it up. So long as veggies are cooked you're all good! This is a really thick soup, if you find you've gone too far, add a little more water.