Minestrone

This warm and nourishing soup is a perfect way to use up any vegetable odds and ends you have going limp in the crisper. It's super easy, flavourful, and customizable to use whatever you have on hand.

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 carrots
  
  
• 1 stalk of celery
  
  
• 1 white or yellow onion
  
  
• 3 garlic cloves (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
  
  
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (or oregano, sage, and thyme)
  
  
• Pinch salt and pepper
  
  
• Optional: around 2 cups fresh or frozen veggies, i.e. broccoli, bell pepper, potato, zucchini, squash, cauliflower, green beans
  
  
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  
  
• 1 796 mL can diced tomatoes
  
  
• 2 bay leaves (optional)
  
  
• 1 cup small pasta, i.e. elbow macaroni or pasta shells
  
  
• Optional garnish: parsley, red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese

1. Prep your ingredients: Peel and dice onion, carrots, and celery, and mince garlic cloves. Wash and cut any other veggies you're using into bite-sized pieces. Drain and rinse can of beans.
   
   
2. Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and carrot, and cook until softened, around 5 minutes. Add garlic and seasonings and cook until fragrant, another minute or so.
   
   
3. Add the remaining veggies, broth, diced tomatoes, and bay leaves to the pot and stir. Increase heat to bring pot to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover, and let simmer for around 20 minutes.
   
   
4. Add pasta to the pot, uncover, and simmer until pasta is cooked through, roughly another 10 mintues.
   
   
5. Season to taste, and ladle into bowls. Serve garnished with parsley, red pepper flakes, and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese (if desired).

• Recipe can be made in the slow cooker. Add all ingredients except for the pasta, and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours, or HIGH for 3-4. Add pasta after that, and cook on HIGH for another 20-25 minutes, until the pasta is tender. This will keep the pasta noodles from getting mushy in the slow cooker!

This is a flexible recipe, and you should absolutely modify it to use what you have on hand. Some popular variations:

• Add a can or two of red kidney beans, northern beans, or chickpeas along with the pasta noodles. You can also use dried beans, but be sure to cook them in advance before adding them to the soup, as the acid in the tomatoes will prevent them from softening.
  
  
• Add 3/4 of a cup of pot barley or other grain instead of the pasta, or in addition to the pasta.
  
  
• Add greens like spinach or shredded kale; stir them into the soup in the last few minutes of simmering, because they take less time to get tender.
  
  
• Minestrone soup is traditionally cooked with a parmesan cheese rind in the broth, so if you have one, throw it in there while the soup simmers!

• Soup will keep covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
  
  
• To freeze, cool completely and then transfer into freezer safe air tight containers or bags. Freeze for up to 3 months.

Recipe adapted from the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano

Food is Too Expensive! was funded by the City of Saskatoon through our Healthy Yards partnership, the Cyril Capling Trust Fund of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, and the Department of Plant Sciences. Focus group research to inform this work was collected by CHEP. Thank you all for helping us make healthy food more accessible!