Minestrone Soup For Dinner

Okay, I tried making soup for the first time ever! I slightly adapted a recipe recommended to me by a friend online. So here it is, minestrone soup…the soup that is SO BIG that it makes dinner by itself – just add your favourite crackers or some good bread. It’s also a lot of fun to make. You’ll need some time on your hands, but there’s a lot to do so you’ll be busy the whole time!

butter & olive oil

It all starts with a lot of butter and a good amount of olive oil.

spicy sausage

Once the oil and butter have melted together, the sausage goes in. I used spicy Italian sausage. I usually buy them actually as sausages, but this time I noticed the grocery store also stocked the same sausage meat, just out of the usual casing. Pretty handy for this recipe – no need to slice and squeeze.

time for vegetables

Once the meat has browned, you can add the vegetables. I didn’t get all my chopping done beforehand (I never do) so I didn’t add all the vegetables at once like I should have. I usually start chopping when the meat is going, but I’m so slow at it I never get done in time. So – the onion usually goes in first, and then I play catch-up.

next up

There goes the celery, as I make a mad dash for the rest of the vegetables. And from here on out, the photos get a bit sloppy. I was pretty much rushing around the whole time

everything's in

Okay, there’s the first half of the ingredients pretty much done. I let that simmer for a minute or two while I organized myself for the rest, haha.

tomato tomato

You can pretty much do what you like with the tomatoes. You can add a lot, just a few, diced, crushed, chopped, whatever works for your taste. This is what I like about minestrone soup – you can really change it around depending on what you like and don’t like, and it will pretty much always come out good. It’s basically foolproof! (this makes it a good choice for me)

chicken stock

Measuring out the stock…

ready to boil

Now it’s time to bring to a boil and let it simmer for awhile.

ready to go this time

So now I had some time to get things together. I doubled the amount of pasta (because I love pasta), and used rotini since I was out of macaroni. I also hate all forms of beans (except jelly beans and Mr. Bean, I think I’ve mentioned that before) so I substituted corn.

after simmering

Here we are after simmering for ten minutes or so…ready for those last few ingredients!

just about done

And that’s everything in! Now it simmers for half an hour, and then it’s done. (don’t forget to remove the bay leaf!)

dinner!

There it is…I should mention that the Royal Taster has said he loved the soup. I tried to get him to be more descriptive, but he was too busy eating. He did ask me to “definitely make this again”, at least! Anyway, it made a ton. We each had a bowl for dinner, there were two bowls left for lunch the next day, and I froze two big bowls to pass on to my grandparents. So you’ll get 6-8 bowls out of this for sure.

Now for the recipe!

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 lb (450g) italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup each, chopped celery, carrot(I was out, so I used peas), green pepper
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (I increased this, probably to about 4 Tbsp)
1/2 tsp dried basil
pinch of dried thyme
1 whole bay leaf (remove when done cooking)
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups chopped tomatoes (again, you can adjust this to desired taste and consistency. I used one undrained 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes.)
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup cooked or canned (drained and rinsed) kidney beans (you can increase these if you like, or substitute – I used 1 cup corn instead)
1/2 cup elbow macaroni or other pasta (I increased this to 1 cup and used rotini instead)

1. In a dutch oven, heat oil and butter. Add sausage and brown lightly. Add onion, garlic, celery, carrot and green pepper. Cook until softened but not browned. Stir in parsley, basil, thyme, bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste.

2. Stir in tomatoes and stock. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add cabbage, beans, and macaroni. Cover and simmer about 30 minutes. If too thick, dilute with water to desired consistency. (mine definitely didn’t come out thick, probably because I didn’t drain those tomatoes. However, it was a good consistency, so next time I make it I’ll leave the tomatoes undrained again.) Taste and adjust seasoning. If you like, serve with fresh grated parmesan and bread or crackers.

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