Soups are such a comfort during these colder winter months AND they provide a great way to get more immune boosting bone broth into your diet too!
It has been awhile since we have made a minestrone but were recently inspired to bring it back into our winter repertoire. Our powered bone broths provide the perfect nutritional base as well as upping the anti on the flavour profile due to the long simmer time of our products.
Ingredients
· 2 cloves of garlic (4 if small cloves)
· 1 red onion
· 2 carrots
· 2 sticks of celery
· 2 broccoli stalks or 1 zucchini
· 1 large potato
· 1 x 400 g tin of cannellini beans
· 2 rashers bacon (we use Cherry Tree Organics Nitrate Free Bacon)
· olive oil
· 1 fresh bay leaf
· 1 x 400 g tins of tomatoes
· 2 litre Tonemade Beef or Chicken bone broth (8 tsp reconstituted in 2 L)
· 1 large handful of seasonal greens (Kale or Silverbeet)
· 150 g GF pasta or wholemeal pasta
· 1 handful fresh parsley, chopped
· 1 handful fresh basil, chopped
· Parmesan cheese
Method
1. Peel and finely chop the garlic and onion.
2. Finely slice the bacon.
3. Trim and roughly chop the carrots, celery and broccoli stalks, then add the vegetables to a large bowl.
4. Scrub and dice the potato.
5. Drain the cannellini beans, then set aside.
6. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the bacon and fry gently for 2 minutes, or until golden. Add garlic and onion and saute for a further 2 minutes.
7. Add the carrots, celery and broccoli stalks and cook slowly for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened, stirring occasionally.
8. Reconstitute Tonemade powdered bone broth of choice in 2 L of boiled water. In this version we opted to use a combination of our beef bone broth and vegetable miso broth (6 tsp beef, 2 tsp vegetable)
9. Add the potato, bay leaf, cannellini beans and tomatoes, then pour in the vegetable stock.
10. Stir well. Cover with a lid and bring everything slowly to the boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the potato is cooked through.
11. If you have some random parmesan cheese rind you can also add this to the soup while simmering to provide an added level of flavour. Meanwhile...
12. Remove and discard any tough stalks bits from the greens, then roughly chop.
13. To check the potato is cooked, pierce a chunk of it with a sharp knife – if it pierces easily, it’s done.
14. Add the greens and pasta to the pan, and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente. This translates as ‘to the tooth’ and means that it should be soft enough to eat, but still have a bit of a bite and firmness to it. Try some just before the time is up to make sure you cook it perfectly.
15. NOTE: If using a gluten free pasta option it can be better to cook the pasta in a separate saucepan for 6 min first then drain and add to the soup for a final 4 min. We find that most GF pasta combinations tend to make the water quite claggy so this prevents having this texture in your final soup.
16. Pick over the basil leaves (if using) and stir through. Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper, then serve with a grating of Parmesan and a slice of wholemeal bread, if you like.
Serves 4 PLUS leftovers for lunch the next day!
Head over to our shop to get your hands on some of our products for your winter soups.
