Minestrone Soup

Ingredients

1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 medium carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chicken, beef or vegetable stock
15 oz canned fire roasted diced tomatoes
15 oz canned kidney beans, drained
15 oz canned chickpeas, drained
28 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
6 oz tomato paste
2 tablespoons minced basil
2 tablespoons minced oregano
2 tablespoons minced Italian parsley
2 (fresh) bay leaves
1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup frozen or fresh green beans, diced
2 small to medium zucchini, diced
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

8 ounces small, cooked pasta

Directions:

For the slow cooker:

Add the garlic, tomato, celery, stock, tomatoes, beans, tomato paste, and spices to a 4 quart slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours. Add shredded cabbage, green beans and zucchini and turn to high for the last hour. Stir in the pasta before serving.

Stovetop: Saute the onions, garlic, carrots and celery until soft. Add the remaining ingredients and heat though.

My thoughts:

Around this time of year I always get a lot of requests for healthy meals. Soup is always a great choice because it is easy to add lots of vegetables. There are a lot of different ways to make minestrone (I even posted a different one here about six years ago) but this one is I think my favorite. I like the combination of chickpeas and kidney beans and the green beans and cabbage (especially when added towards the end in the slow cooker version) really make it taste fresh. While this is a vegan soup, I like to serve with a tiny hunk of sharp, aged cheddar in the bottom of a bowl. It melts and adds a tasty ribbon of cheese to each bite.