Recipe: Minestrone Soup

The colder seasons are coming and with that grows a desire to cook some scrumptious and hearty soups for my family. Minestrone soup is one we make quite often:

Here's the recipe:

Minestrone Soup

Extra virgin olive oil

1/2 Onion

4 Carrots

3 Celery Stalks

4 Potatoes

2 large smashed and chopped Garlic Cloves

6 cups (or more) filtered water

2-3 tsps sea salt (to taste)

Few dashes of Pepper

1 can Tomato Paste or 3 tomatoes par-boiled, skinned and blended up

1 1/2 cups soaked Kidney Beans

Dry, crushed Basil Leaves - 2 tsp

Dry Oregano Powder - 1 tsp

Dried Thyme - 1/2 tsp

(or instead of using these dried herbs you can add 2 Tbsps pesto sauce)

Saute onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, beans and garlic cloves in desired amount of olive oil until tender. Add water, salt, pepper and tomato paste and let boil hard for 20-30 minutes until vegetables are to desired tenderness. While this is cooking I cook my pasta in a separate pot until done.

Add herbs and pasta and let cool some.

This soup can be topped with a sprinkle of cheese, a dollop of sour cream or, most healthy of all, some fresh alfalfa sprouts.