Authentic Italian cuisine doesn’t only revolve around pasta as we often hear and a nice minestrone soup is one example. There are a few ways to make a minestrone soup and you can pick and choose one that blends well with your diet.
Veggie minestrone soup
A veggie minestrone soup is the most basic and most popular type you can make. It’s also very friendly to a number of diets.
Ingredients:
- 80 g Red onions
- 60 g Celery
- 100 g Leeks
- 300 g Cauliflower
- 200 g Peas
- 80 g Carrots
- 300 g Potatoes (*)
- 100 g Courgettes
- 300 g Tomatoes
- 50 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 sprig of Rosemary (tied with a string)
- 2 leaves Laurel
- Black Pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
Instructions:
Clean and cube all the larger veggies.
Heat up the oil in a larger pan and add celery, carrots, onion, and leek. Cook on medium heat until brown while stirring. Once tender add the rosemary, potatoes, and cauliflower and cook with a lid on until tender.
Add the courgettes a little while later as they tend to cook faster. Make sure to add water as needed to adjust consistency, you don’t want it dry but not too runny either.
Add the tomatoes and peas last, along with salt and pepper to finish off the seasoning. Cook for a few more minutes and when it is done, you can remove the rosemary spring from the soup.
Serve with some more olive oil on top and a few twists of ground black pepper.
Minestrone soup with barley
Barley is an ingredient that has been used since pre-ancient times, and so it made its way into a classic minestrone soup with barley.
Ingredients:
- 150 g Pearl barley
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Potatoes
- 1 Onions
- 4 Chives threads chopped
- 1 Celery
- 2 Laurel leaves
- 100 g Smoked bacon
- 40 g Butter
- 1 l Meat broth
- 2 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
- Grana Padana grated cheese
- Black pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
Instructions:
Clean and peel all the veggies and cut them into squares and wash the barley.
Melt the butter in a pan and add the onion to saute for a while. Add the carrots and celery and further saute for about 5 minutes.
After this add the bacon, barley, and a few laddels of meat broth to cook the barley in.
Now add the bay leaves and cook with the minestrone on low heat. Check the barley to see if it’s cooked and add some more water if needed, so that it won’t get burnt at the bottom.
Towards the end add potatoes and cook for 10 minutes.
After the minestrone soup is done, sprinkle some chopped chives and a little olive il on top with some salt.
Serve with grated grana padano.
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