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Recipe: Minestrone 22 May 2008 10:05 am

Posted by Tracy in : cooking,recipes,soup,vegan,vegetarian , trackback

There’s a minestrone special on at Morning Glory this week, and it’s all right, but I would’ve made it even better. (Sorry, Gail.) Turns out I have a pretty specific idea in my head about minestrone — brothy tomato-vegetable soup with Italian seasonings (by which I mostly mean herbs like basil and oregano), some kind of light-colored bean, and maybe pasta. We’re talking serious Tracy comfort food, the kind I associate so strongly with warm fuzzies that just the idea of it was enough to make me fall in love with this picture of Chiara (ok, the swooning was not hurt by the fact that Chiara is awesome and that picture is really cute, but I digress). Maybe my notion of minestrone is so non-traditional as to be heretical, in which case I’m really sorry, but it’s going to be a while before I can stop using the word, even if it does not mean what I think it means. But I digress.

I love tomato soup (see exhibits A, B, and C) and that love is all tangled up with minestrone, oh yes. It’s also closely tied to my love of chickpeas, which play an important supporting role in the following recipe. (I used to hunt for them in this soup back in the day, I really did.) My last thought about this soup before I finally get to the recipe is: hey look, it turns out vegan soup and I go back a long way. How long, you ask? Well, in the hand-written notebook of my very favorite recipes of all time, there’s a very basic minestrone recipe on the very first page. Sure, I suggest serving it with Parmesan, but quite frankly when I first copied down those ingredients and instructions nearly ten years ago, I only barely knew about good Parmesan beyond the all-important “not the sawdusty stuff in the green can, please for the love of love anything but that.” Also at the time I hadn’t really given veganism enough thought to realize, for instance, that both this soup and the pasta dish above it in my notebook were suitable for it provided I could let go of my beloved cheesy garnishes. (Animal products as garnish describes a lot of TracyFood, actually, though I hesitate to call it the majority if only because of my possibly-unholy love of eggs. But now I’m just rambling. On with the food!)

Ingredients and Equipment

Time: 1 hour, start to eating.
Yield: lots

What You Do

Heat the olive oil in the pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook 1-2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant. Next, add the carrots and celery and a big pinch of salt, and cook until the onions are wilted.

Add cabbage, kale, and bay leaves; turn the heat up to medium-high and cook 1 minute, until the greens start to wilt.

Add water, tomatoes, and chickpeas, and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 15-30 minutes.

Serve with your favorite hard grating cheese (if desired) and crusty bread.

Mmm, minestrone. Tune in tomorrow for a few recipe variations (and their Sundance signage, if I can find it).

  • http://www.allchiara.com Chiara

    Hi hon–am just catching up on TracyFood and am thrilled to know you like the silly picture of me cooking for the backpacking masses. I have always believed that the beautiful thing about minestrone (which translates, literally, into “big soup”) is that it is so v ersatile. I think the version you’ve given here is awesome for fall, with the kale and the cabbage. Last time I made it I put in some green beans and those were lovely; I don’t like chunky tomatoes so I usually just glop in a big thing of tomato paste so it’s much more brothy. Also! Consider putting in a big spoonful (or three!) of pesto, but right at the end, even in the individual serves of the soup. I did that when that picture was taken and it was super yum.

    I have so much to say about minestrone. I will email you the rest of my thoughts!