October 31, 2021 / In food , soup / Tagged as: onion, carrots, celery, courgette, potatoes, garlic, risotto, borlotti beans, cannellini beans, kidney beans

Minestrone Soup

Total Cook Time

50 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 sticks celery
  • 3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
  • Seasonal vegetables of your choice – for example, 1 courgette, a few asparagus stalks and/or runner beans, half a head of fennel, 1 handful fresh peas or broad beans, a couple of handfuls of spinach
  • 4-6 new potatoes
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 100g cooked and drained borlotti beans (or kidney beans or cannellini beans)
  • 100g risotto rice
  • 1 1/2 litres chicken or vegetable stock, or water
  • a few basil leaves to serve

Method

  1. Peel and finely chop the onion.
  2. Peel and chop the carrots and celery into roughly 1cm dice, keeping them separate from the onion.
  3. Chop the potatoes, courgette, asparagus, fennel etc into a similarly sized small dice.
  4. Soften the onions first; then add the carrots and celery.
  5. Add the crushed garlic to the pan.
  6. Add the other veg one by one adding the ones that need the greater cooking time first. Fry until slightly softened.
  7. Add the beans and rice.
  8. Add the stock or water and bring to a boil.
  9. Turn down the heat and simmer gently, stirring occasionally to stop it sticking to the pan, until the potatoes and rice are cooked.
  10. Serve with some torn basil leaves

Note