Minestrone is a thick Italian vegetarian vegetable soup. It's the kind of soup where you could practically stand your spoon upright. And that's not just a figure of speech-you can take it literally! Minestra is the Italian word for "soup," and Minestrone is the superlative form of that. So, it's essentially the "soup of soups"! Let's dive into more details about this delightful dish.
But first, let's share our recipe for a midweek Minestrone soup.

How to make Midweek Minestrone soup?

Now, let's delve into the details of creating this delightful dish. Minestrone soup doesn't have a single fixed recipe, but what's crucial is that it's loaded with (Italian) vegetables. This also makes it perfect for using up leftovers-those bits and pieces you might have from the weekend. Hence, it's the ideal midweek minestrone soup.

Preparing the vegetables

As most often, we start with preparing the vegetables.

Onion and Garlic: Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. You can cut them into small pieces.
Red Chili Pepper: Remove the stem, halve the chili lengthwise, and deseed it (unless you want an extra spicy soup). Finely chop the chili pepper.
Carrots: Peel the carrots, remove the tops and bottoms, then halve them lengthwise. Cut them into pieces approximately one centimeter in size.
Celery Stalks: Trim the tops and bottoms of the celery stalks, then cut them in half lengthwise. Slice them into approximately one-centimeter pieces.
Green Beans: Trim the ends of the green beans and halve or quarter them. You can do this in batches of about five or six beans at a time. Align the ends and cut off the tips. Repeat on the other side. Finally, slice them into halves or quarters, depending on their size and your preference.
Baby spinach: chopping the baby spinach is an optional step. But I prefer to cut them into smaller pieces. This makes eating the Minestrone meal soup with a ladle much easier.
Zucchini: And last but not least, there's the zucchini. Again, we remove the ends and cut it lengthwise into halves or quarters. Just like with the previous vegetables, we then slice it into approximately one-centimeter pieces.

Making the Midweek Minestrone soup

Now that we've prepared all the vegetables, we can begin the warm part of this recipe. And for that, we'll need a large pot.

In it, we heat a tablespoon of olive oil. Once it's hot, we sauté the onion, garlic, and chili pepper over high heat. After about a minute, the aromas are released.

Next, we add vegetable broth and a can of diced tomatoes. We also include tomato paste and bay leaves right away. Now, let's bring this soup base to a boil.

When the broth is boiling, we add carrots, celery, and green beans. Let them simmer for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, we open two cans of white and red beans. We drain them and add them to our Minestrone in progress. You can also taste the Minestrone and adjust the seasonings to your liking.

After ten minutes, we're halfway through the cooking time. Now, add zucchini and pasta. Use various pasta shapes, but it's recommended to use small pasta so you can still eat it with a spoon.

Five minutes later, add finely chopped baby spinach. It's fully cooked in minutes and marks the final step in preparing our midweek Minestrone meal soup.

Now, let's serve the soup in deep bowls or dishes. You can also slice some fresh baguette. Enjoy!

What exactly is Minestrone?

As indicated in the introduction, Minestrone is the soup of soups. The Italian word for soup is "Minestra", and the suffix "one" implies something large or thick. This naturally refers to the hearty texture of the soup-you could practically stand a spoon upright in it.

The earliest predecessors of Minestrone soup trace back to ancient Rome. The Romans already had a thick, robust soup on their menu, known as "puls".

However, the true popularization of Minestrone came with the introduction of tomatoes to Europe. Since then, tomatoes have become an essential component of every Minestrone.

And as you might expect, there isn't a single recipe for Minestrone. It's more of a conceptual soup with the following characteristics:

A robust broth for flavor.
Tomatoes as a crucial ingredient.
An abundance of vegetables providing that hearty texture.

Learn more about Minestrone:

More surprising.mealsoup

A tasty soup is always welcome. Moreover, soups are naturally the prototype of a one-pot dish. Everything comes together in the soup kettle. And then stir and cook. Be sure to try the following meal soups:

If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.