Spring Minestrone Soup

19 June 2018 By

A hearty minestrone soup to nourish your well being at any time of the year. Adjust the vegetables according to the season and what is in your fridge, freezer or garden that needs using up. Other homemade stocks or bone broths will work well too.

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 banana shallots, minced
  • 6 spring onions, white section only
  • 2-3 large garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 kg potatoes, scrubbed clean and cut into small chunks
  • 1 x 400 g can Mutti diced tomatoes
  • 4 cups homemade or store bought low sodium vegetable stock
  • Rind of pecorino cheese
  • Sea salt
  • 230 g artichoke hearts (fresh, frozen or bottled), roughly chopped
  • 400 g can chickpeas, rinsed well and drained
  • 1 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
  • 400 g can butter beans, rinsed well and drained, reserve half the drained beans for blending
  • 230 g asparagus, green beans or butter beans, cut into 25 mm chunks
  • 2 cups greens (rainbow chard, spinach, kale, silver or red beet etc), sliced into thin ribbons
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • Grated parmesan or pecorino cheese for garnish

Blend together

 

  1. Prepare all the vegetables as advised above.
  2. In an 8-litre pot, add oil on a medium to high heat. Add banana shallots, spring onions and garlic and sauté for 3-4 minutes.
  3. Then add potatoes and cook for a couple of minutes more.
  4. Next add diced tomatoes with their juice and vegetable stock. Add in the pecorino cheese rind.
  5. Bring to a simmer, add salt to taste, then cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.
  6. Add artichoke hearts and cook for 5 minutes.
  7. Place the chickpeas, tinned butter beans and green peas in the soup and cook 5 minutes more.
  8. Then add the asparagus, all the sliced greens and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
  9. Turn off the heat. Stir in the blended mixture of Latasha’s Kitchen Orange Chimichurri & Jalapeno Relish, tinned butter beans and oil.
  10. Adjust salt and add black pepper to taste. Serve topped with grated cheese.

TIP: I keep all the rinds of hard cheese in a zip lock bag in the freezer.