Minestrone and meatball soup
Cheerful and affordable soup perfect to share with friends and family
6 - 8
Serves
15 mins
Prep Time
1 hr
Cook Time
Recipe author
Beef + Lamb New Zealand
This is hearty food at its best. We've suggested making the meatballs from scratch, but this is a great way to extend leftovers as well. Use what vegetables you have on hand for a budget dinner.
This recipe is based on Sue Hamilton and Dana Alexander's original Everything's in it minestrone recipe.
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Ingredients
200g Quality Mark beef mince
1 onion
finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
finely chopped
2 carrots
roughly chopped
2 celery stalks
finely sliced
2 small courgettes
roughly chopped
100g green beans
400g chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp tomato paste
4 cups chicken stock
400g can cannellini beans
drained
1/2 of a 400g can red kidney beans
Drained and rinsed
1.5 cups small pasta shapes
1 tsp dried basil
2 large handfuls baby spinach
i
1 handful basil leaves
i
roughly chopped
Method
To Make Minestrone
1
In a large saucepan, gently fry onion and garlic over a low heat until transparent.
2
Throw in carrots, celery, courgettes, green beans or any other veggies you have on hand. Make sure they are cut roughly to the same size so they cook evenly. Any denser vegetables should be diced smaller.
3
Cook vegetables over a medium heat until carrots start to soften and brown a little.
4
Add tomatoes, tomato paste and stock and bring to a gentle simmer.
5
Add cannellini beans, kidney beans and pasta and simmer gently for at least 20 minutes or until the pasta has softened.
Start Timer
6
While soup is simmering, make tiny meatballs. Mix beef mince with dried basil, a good pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper.
7
Form a meatball from a heaped teaspoon of the minced beef mixture. Repeat until all mince mixture is used. Make sure they are small, otherwise they’ll break apart in the soup.
8
Fry meatballs in a little olive oil until lightly browned all over.
9
When pasta is softened, add meatballs, spinach and basil and stir through.
10
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 (587g)
This nutritional analysis is based on 6 serves and doesn't include the pesto or parmesan.
Energy
1644kJ (393 kcal)
Protein
25.8g
Total Fat
3.8g
Saturated Fat
1.1g
Carbs
56.2g
Dietary Fibre
13.8g
Sodium
649mg
Iron
4.5mg
Zinc
3.7mg
Vitamin B12
0.3µg
