Delicious and Healthy: Minestrone

Hi there,

my mother's vegetable garden is exploding right now. Green beans, tomatoes, celery... everythings ready to be harvested. Good for me, as I'm therefore currently getting the best organically grown vegetables directly from the garden. I decided to use them to make a really tasty and substantial vegetable soup: Italian minestrone. 

What you'll need (for 4 persons)

• 3 garlic gloves
• 2 spring onions
• 1/2 handful celery leaves
• 2 big carrots
• 2 potatoes
• 1 handful green beans
• 1/2 zucchini
• 60g butter
• olive oil
• 1 1/2 l vegetable stock
• 100g tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 handful fresh basil 
• grated parmesan
• salt and pepper
• 85g spaghetti (broken into small pieces)

How it works

Chop the garlic, spring onions, celery leaves, carrotts, potatoes, green beans and zucchinis. Heat the butter and the olive oil in a big pot and brown the garlic and the onions for two minutes. Add the celery leaves, the carrots and potatoes and continue roasting for another two minutes. Add the green beans and the zucchini and...what do you think?... brown for two minutes.

Cover the pot and cook the vegetables stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. Then add the vegetable stock, the tomatoes, the tomato paste and the basil and add salt and peeper to taste.

Cook the soup on a low heat for about an hour. Then add the spaghetti pieces and cook for another 10 minutes.
Put the soup into bowls, sprinkle grated parmesan over it and enjoy! :)

Have a great weekend!

Yours,
Tulip

All images by Stefanie Reichl