A Low Fat Recipe As Requested-Minestrone Soup

It is Friday once again and time to join Michael @ Designs by Gollum to see all those fabulous blogger recipes.

     I love soup, almost all kinds of soup. I usually prefer cream soups with the exception of minestrone and vegetable soup. Minestrone is one of those recipes that I make a lot of and freeze for those cold winter nights when I don’t want to cook. I make mine vegetarian (we aren’t) simply because I like the flavor this way. Don't let the recipe list scare you. The ingredients aren't really expensive, and much of what you are doing is opening cans and dumping.

Ingredients:


2 T. olive oil
1 cup chopped/chunked celery (about 3 stalks)
1 cup chopped/chunked carrots (about 3 regular carrots)
1 potato (any variety) chopped
1 onion chopped (optional-you all know by now that I don’t cook with onions)
1 can white beans, rinse and drain
1 can red beans, rinse and drain
1 can garbanzo beans, rinse and drain
1 can green beans, drained
1 can (14.5 oz) of diced tomatoes (I use fire roasted, but you can use others)
1 small head of cabbage (about 4 cups) in chunks
1 zucchini
½ cup pasta (elbow-or whatever you have)
1 tsp. oregano
2 T. dried basil
4 cubes vegetable bouillon (or the equal amount of chicken broth or bouillon to mix in the 8 c. water)
8 cups of water
Parmesan Cheese

In a large stock pot or pan, sauté the celery, carrots, potato and optional onion for 3 minutes until slightly tender. Add the drained white, red, green and garbanzo beans. Add the diced tomatoes, cabbage, bouillon cubes, water, oregano and basil. Stir gently to mix. (you did not add the zucchini, pasta or parmesan cheese yet) Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer. About 30 minutes before serving add the zucchini and the pasta. Serve garnished with parmesan cheese. The longer you cook this soup (before adding the zucchini and pasta, the better). You can do this in a crock pot, just add the final ingredients a little while before serving so they will get tender.