Minestrone Soup

This isn’t my usual type of recipe, but I wanted to switch things up a little bit!

Minestrone soup is a very popular dish of the longest living people of the world in the Blue Zone of Sardinia, Italy. They eat some kind of variation of this soup everyday for lunch with a side of sourdough bread! It’s a great balance of veggies/fiber, plant based protein (from the chickpeas), you can add chicken to this recipe for extra protein, and healthy carbs from the brown rice pasta (pairing beans and some type of grain, brown rice in this case, makes this a complete protein), and a good source of healthy fats from the parmesan cheese topping😋 I didn’t measure out all of the ingredients, and mostly eyeballed it, but this is my variation🤗

Ingredients:

• 2-3 tbs olive oil

• 1 tbs minced garlic

• 1 chopped white onion

• about 2 chopped carrots

• about 3 stalks celery

• 6 chopped tomatoes

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• 1 tsp dried parsley

• black pepper

• salt to your taste

• 4-5 cups chicken/vegetable broth

• 1/2 cup tomato sauce or 1/4 cup tomato paste 

• 1 can drained & rinsed chickpeas

• 3/4 cup brown rice pasta

• frozen kale/spinach 

• Parmesan cheese and more parsley for topping!

Method:

• heat your pot on a medium-low heat

• add olive oil & allow it to get hot, then add the garlic, onions & fresh cut tomatoes, mix them together and cover the pot for about 10 mins to soften the tomatoes

• add in the carrots, celery, seasonings, broth, chickpeas & mix, reduce to a low heat & allow this mixture to simmer for about 20 mins

• add in brown rice pasta & allow it to simmer for an additional 10 mins

• stir in your kale/spinach last as this will mix in & reduce quickly

• Serve & top with freshly grated parmesan cheese & either dried/fresh parsley 

Enjoy!!