Everything's in it minestrone
Loaded and healthy soup
Serves
6
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
1 hr
Perfect on a cold winter’s night with warm crusty bread straight from the oven. We’ve made this dish from scratch but feel free to use leftover meatballs from a previous meal and add your favourite veggies. That’s what we mean when we say it has ‘everything in it’.
Perfect on a cold winter’s night with warm crusty bread straight from the oven. We’ve made this dish from scratch but feel free to use leftover meatballs from a previous meal and add your favourite veggies. That’s what we mean when we say it has ‘everything in it’.
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ShareIngredients
200g Quality Mark beef mince
1 onion
finely chopped2 garlic cloves
finely chopped4 slices of bacon
roughly chopped2 carrots
roughly chopped2 celery stalks
finely sliced2 courgettes
roughly chopped100g green beans
400g chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp tomato paste
4 cups chicken stock
400g can cannellini beans
drained200g red kidney beans
1 cup small pasta shapes
1 tsp dried basil
2 large handfuls baby spinach
1 handful basil leaves
roughly chopped
Method
In a large saucepan, gently fry onion and garlic over a low heat until transparent.
Add bacon and fry until crisp.
Throw in carrots, celery, courgettes, green beans and frankly any other veggies you have on hand.
Make sure, however, that they are cut to the same size so that they cook evenly. If some vegetables are denser than others, dice them a little smaller.
Cook vegetables over a medium heat until carrots start to soften and brown a little.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste and stock and bring to a gentle simmer.
Add cannellinni beans, half the can of kidney beans and pasta and simmer gently for at least 20 minutes or until the pasta has softened.
While soup is simmering, make tiny meatballs.
Mix beef mince with dried basil, a good pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper.
Form a meatball from a heaped teaspoon of minced beef.
Repeat until all mince mixture is used.
Fry meatballs in a little olive oil until lightly browned all over.
Make sure they are small, otherwise they’ll break apart in the soup, though that’s not a complete disaster!
When pasta is softened, add meatballs, spinach and basil and stir through.
Simmer for another 5 minutes then, if wished, serve with a swirl of pesto on top or a dusting of Parmesan, or both.
Nutrition Information per Serving (522g)
This nutrition analysis is based on 6 serves and doesn't include the pesto or parmesan to serve. To reduce the sodium content of this recipe, use low salt stock.
