Our dear friends gave me a beautiful cookbook from their last cruise, it is a celebration of courses through the journies of their fleet: Culinary Courses Journeys. Although most of the recipes are quite fancy, the book is amazing inspiration and a week doesn’t go by that I don’t check it for reference!
It was such an occasion that I was leafing through the book that I found a gorgeous representation of a Minestrone Soup and I knew I had to make it for dinner. And then I realized that I did not have a Minestrone on the blog. Gads!
The soup is packed with fresh vegetables in a light tomato and basil scented broth. The protein is navy bean to keep it healthy. You could add a parmesan rind or two to the broth while cooking.
The tuile melts into the soup for a beautiful flavour and textural addition.
Rustic Vegetable Minestrone
A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe
Makes about 1.5 L (6.25 cups) soup.
Please click here to print this recipe.
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp EVOO
- 125 g (~1 cup) sweet onion, diced
- 10 g (2 – 3 cloves) garlic, finely minced
- 150 g (~1 cup) zucchini, diced
- 115 g (~1 cup) celery, diced
- 120 g (~1 cup) red pepper, diced
- 75 g (~1 cup) king mushrooms, diced
- 140 mL (4 oz) puréed tomatoes, juice or sauce
- 15 mL (1 tbsp) tomato paste
- 350 mL (1 2/3 cups) chicken stock
- 2 stems of basil
- 4 stems of lemon thyme
- 100 g (1/2 cup) dried beans
- 35 g (~1 cup) baby spinach
- 5-8 fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
Directions:
- Cook the dried beans according to directions.
- Heat Olive Oil in a large pot and sauté onions until translucent, you may need to add a little stock or water. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
- Add all of the vegetables and cook for about 10-15 minutes.
- Combine the puréed tomatoes, tomato paste, and chicken stock. Pour over the vegetables and add the basil and thyme stems and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove stems.
- Add the cooked beans and baby spinach, stir and heat through.
- Serve garnished with a Parmesan tuile (recipe below) and roughly torn basil leaves.
Basil Cheese Tuile
Makes 1 tuile
Ingredients:
- 7 g (1/4 oz) hard fatty cheese (like Parmesan or Cheddar), finely grated
- 1 large basil leaf, chiffonade
- pinch of granulated garlic
Directions:
- Pre-heat the oven on high broil.
- Mix cheese, basil and granulated garlic well.
- On a parchment lined baking sheet, shape the tuile as desired (I made a tear drop).
- Broil until evenly browned (mine took about 4 minutes but it depends on how thick you make your tuile); to prevent burning, you may need to cover part of it with bits of parchment as it bakes.
Notes:
- I like a little crunch left in my vegetables, so I generally under cook rather than over cook.
- If you make this in advance, keep the beans separately so they don’t turn to mush.
- I used Ivanhoe Horseradish Cheddar because I thought it would be a nice zing to the soup.
- Make as many tuile as you need, just multiply the ingredients by the servings required.
Kitcheninspirations 