MONDAY RECIPE POST - MINESTRONE SOUP

Another soup recipe for you.  It comes from Lauren at Taste of Home, and you can find the link here.

Easy Minestrone Soup

Makes 11 servings at 180 calories per cup 

Total preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

2 large carrots, diced

2 celery ribs, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 cans (8 ounces each) no-salt-added tomato sauce

1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained

1-1/2 cups shredded cabbage

1 tablespoon dried basil

1-1/2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup uncooked whole wheat elbow macaroni

11 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese

In a large saucepan, sauté the carrots, celery and onion in oil and butter until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.

Stir in the broth, tomato sauce, beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, cabbage, basil, parsley, oregano and pepper. 

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Add macaroni; cook, uncovered, 6-8 minutes or until macaroni and vegetables are tender (look at directions on the packet for time).

Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle with cheese.

Freeze option: Before adding cheese, freeze cooled soup in freezer containers. To use, partially thaw in refrigerator overnight. Heat through in a saucepan, stirring occasionally and adding a little broth or water if necessary.  (Since making this soup we have already eaten a portion that I had put in the freezer and after thawing it overnight and adding more broth, it heated up very nicely in a pan on the stovetop.  I served it that time with the biscuits from this recipe, changing the chopped chilies to thinly sliced green onions.)  

At the website underneath the recipe, several suggestions and recipes are given to go with this soup, such as Basil-tomato grilled cheese sandwiches.  Plain old grilled cheese would be nice too.  I haven't checked out the others listed but will before I make this next time.  A green salad would be good.  It is such a hardy soup we ate it on its own that first time.  

You can look at all the tips for this recipe if you visit their site at the link above.

We used two large cartons (4 cup size each) of reduced sodium broth.  You can use vegetable broth to make this vegetarian.

We grated Parmesan cheese over the soup.

I made sure to double up on this recipe as we froze half of it.  It is nice to have those days when we don't want to fuss much in the kitchen, and feel like a nice hot soup. 

Here is the address if you can't get the link to work. 

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/contest-winning-easy-minestrone/

All in all, another great soup for our make again folder.

Thanks for looking and Bon Appetit!