Recipe for Minestrone Soup

How to make a hearty minestrone soup

This minestrone soup recipe is full of Nature’s healthy goodness such as red kidney beans (one of the Mayo Clinic’s top 10 antioxidant foods), garlic to aid digestion and tomatoes to combat cancer and protect your heart.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 6-8 cloves of garlic
• 3 carrots
• 3 zucchini
• 1 eggplant (or 3-4 lebanese eggplant)
• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 ½ litres of vegetable stock
• 2 cups uncooked pasta
• 1 cup fresh basil (or 2 tablespoons dried basil)

Method

1. Finely chop garlic.
2. Dice onion into large pieces
3. Chop carrot, zucchini and eggplant into bite-size pieces.
4. Fry onion and garlic until the onion is translucent.
5. Add carrot and fry for 5 minutes.
6. Add zucchini and eggplant and mix well over heat for 2 minutes.
7. Rinse kidney beans well and add to the soup mixture.
8. Add tomatoes and stock, cover and simmer until all the vegetables are soft (20-30 minutes.)
9. Add pasta and cook until soft. This will take a little longer than usual as the acid in the tomatoes slows the absorption of fluids.
10. Stir through basil just before serving, and add some whole basil leaves for garnish.

Tips

• This hearty minestrone soup is a meal on its own, especially served up with some warm, crusty bread.
• Keeps well in the fridge – actually it tastes even better the next day.
• Freezes well for up to 3 months.

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