A colourful and vibrant soup for any time of the year. Minestrone is an excellent filling lunch or light dinner. The colours come leaping out at you, inviting you into its tasty warmth. We would eat this every day if we could!
Serves 4
Olive oil
2 red onions
3 cloves garlic
2 – 3 carrots
1 parsnip
2 sticks celery
Handful frozen peas
1 tin borlotto beans or red kidney beans (or any other kind of bean of your choice)
300 ml tomato passata
1 tbsp tomato purée
A few sprigs thyme, stripped from the stem.
A small sprig Rosemary chopped
Or you can use dried herbs – oregano is good
pinch chilli flakes
1 litre veg stock (we use Marigold Bouillon)
200 g gluten free brown rice pasta – spirals are nice or you can use broken spaghetti or any pasta you fancy
Handful Parsley
1. Sauté the onion in a couple of tablespoons oil in a large soup pan. Add the garlic and rest of the veg. Stir for a couple of minutes and add the beans, herbs, tomato, chilli and stock.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 – 30 mins, adding the peas half way though and a good handful of parsley at the end.
3. Meanwhile cook the pasta and when you are ready to eat ladle out the soup, add some pasta into each bowl as you go.
Note :: you can use other veg according to what you have – sweet potatoes, squash, cabbage, kale, celeriac are all great!