Minestrone Soup

Hands-down this is my favorite minestrone recipe. I’ve tried a couple others but they always come out kind of “meh” or pretty flavorless. I use whole wheat elbow macaroni, but rice macaroni should work just fine. You could probably use fire-roasted tomatoes instead of the canned stewed tomatoes if you’re looking to stay 100% strictly wfpb, but I like the larger tomato pieces and the flavor of the stewed tomatoes. So, I guess I cheat the tiniest of tiny amounts on that part of the recipe.

The minestrone is extremely easy to make (having only 3 cooking steps!), but it does take awhile to cook. Start preparing this a good hour and a half (at least an hour for cook time alone) before you plan to eat. This is a good soup to use as either a main entree or side dish!

Ingredients:

Servings: 6 ish? depends on how big your bowls are!

1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, diced
4¼ cups low-sodium vegetable stock, divided (I use Pacific’s low-sodium vegetable broth)
1 zucchini, diced
1 15-oz. can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
2 15-oz. cans stewed tomatoes (I struggle to find any without added salt and/or sugar. Do your best. No oil or high fructose corn syrup!)
1 tbs. tomato paste
1 cup diced potato (about 1 medium potato)
2 cups chopped frozen spinach
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. dried parsley
½ tsp. dried oregano
1 bay leaf
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. black pepper
1½ cups uncooked elbow macaroni (brown rice or whole wheat)

Note: You can be really flexible with the amounts of the ingredients. Do you like green cabbage? Put more in! Do you like potato in soups? Add more of that too! The only thing I would not add more of is the macaroni, or else it’ll be more like “macaroni with soup-stuff” and not a minestrone. The amounts of everything else can be played with!

Directions:

In a large pot over medium-high heat, sauté the onion, celery, and carrots in ¼ cup of the vegetable stock until tender.

Add everything else EXCEPT the macaroni. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat. Simmer for approximately one hour (I usually go about 45 minutes).