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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Thick Minestrone Soup

Mammy Minestrone

Yup so this is a minestrone I made with my mum while home over the bank holiday. I decided to make it when I saw how much lovely homegrown spinach that they had in their cupboard. Then I forgot to add it in - whoops- well it was still a great soup and a nice filling lunch that got me the whole way back to Dublin in the car without any belly rumbles.

Ingredients
 1 white onion finely diced
2 cloves of garlic finely sliced
6 fresh tomatoes (chopped, skinned if you like)
3 carrots diced
3 sticks of celery finely sliced
big bunch of green beans cut into whatever size pieces you like
1 tin of mixed beans
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
3 handfuls of dry pasta (whatever shapes you like)
1 sprig of thyme
1 bunch of parsley
1 pint of vegetable stock
A couple of handfuls of basil leaves

To Garnish 
freshly grated Parmesan
basil leaves
 
Fry your onion over a medium heat for two minutes before adding in the garlic. Cook until the onion begins to soften, then add in the diced carrots and celery. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Then add in the sprig of thyme, the bay leaf, tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes begin to soften. Then stir in all the other ingredients, except the basil, mix well and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for about 12-14 minutes until the pasta shapes are cooked. Stir in the fresh basil just before serving and garnish with a few leaves and a generous grating of Parmesan. Enjoy with some nice brie and a glass of good red wine.

I only used about 1/2 litre of stock in this and it turned out very thick, so I recommended more stock in the recipe to make for a more liquid soup. I love cooking with my mum, she ways things like 'what'll I chop next?' and 'I'll get that from the garden' the perfect cooking partner

Thanks Mum!

3 comments:

Lu said...

PS - I noticed our June posts are very wintery recipes - but if you're growing tons of tomatoes and spinach it's a good to soup to make and freeze for the winter (that's my excuse!)

marty, sharon and pearl said...

hey Lu...thanks for your comment on my work blog (for some reason comments on that blog dont get mailed to me so only noticed it now!)....shame you didnt make it to PK....glad your friends got a cookie though....i made 350 and didnt get one! well, only the disaster ones at home. anyhow, i have my performance on the blog now if you fancy reliving it..think you had to be there in a way though.

loving this recipe...yum yum...doesnt matter its summer...its bloody freezing anyhow!! sharon x

Lu said...

Wow that is a heroic amount of baking you undertook. Yeah it's still pretty cold alright -there's a heat-wave on the way for this weekend though I hear, hurray!