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Minestrone

Name: Minestrone
Prep time: 2 h 19 min
Cook time: 1 h 11 min
Total time: 3 h 30 min
Yield: 6 people
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 200 g white beans; 200 g peas; 4 spring onions (scallions); 2 tomatoes; 200 g green beans; 2 courgettes; 2 carrots; 2 turnips; 2 potatoes; 200 g green asparagus spears; 6 tablespoons olive oil; 2 litres water; 2 chicken stock cubes; Salt; Pepper

Minestrone is a traditional Italian soup. It is made with a mix of vegetables and a poultry stock. It is quite simple to make, but preparing all the vegetables takes time.
There are doubtless as many minestrone recipes as there are Italian cooks, but here is my version.

193 K 4.3/5 (29 reviews)552528

Duration

3 hours 30 min.

Difficulty

Average

Last modified on: May 29^th 2011

Step by step recipe Ingredients Duration Nutritional facts Cost Comments

For 6 people, you will need:

1 200 g white beans
2 200 g peas
3 4 spring onions (scallions)
4 2 tomatoes
5 200 g green beans
6 2 courgettes
7 2 carrots
8 2 turnips
9 2 potatoes
10 200 g green asparagus spears
11 6 tablespoons olive oil
12 2 litres water
13 2 chicken stock cubes
14 Salt
15 Pepper
Total weight: 4,970 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation

2 hours 20 min.

Cooking

1 hour 15 min.

All in all

3 hours 30 min.

Preparation 2 hours 20 min.

Cooking 1 hour 15 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1

The day before, put 200 g white beans to soak overnight if you are using dried beans. For fresh ones this isn't necessary.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 10 min.

Shell 200 g peas, or use frozen ones.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 10 min.

Peel, wash and chop 4 spring onions (scallions).

Stage 4 - ⌛ 20 min.

Peel 2 tomatoes and cut into quarters.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 10 min.

Wash 200 g green beans, cut off the ends and cut into pieces.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 30 min.

Prepare 2 courgettes in small pieces.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 40 min.

Peel and wash 2 carrots, 2 turnips and 2 potatoes, cut into small pieces.

Stage 8 - ⌛ 20 min.

Peel and boil 200 g green asparagus spears in salted water until just tender, but still with some crunch.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 20 min.

Throw away the water that the beans have soaked in and replace with salted water, Boil until they are cooked but still slightly firm.

Drain.

Stage 10 - ⌛ 1 min.

Pour 6 tablespoons olive oil into a large pan over medium heat. When hot, add the chopped onions, salt, pepper and cook while stirring for 1 minute.

Add the turnips, carrots and potatoes. Stir to mix well.

Stage 11 - ⌛ 5 min.

Add the courgettes, haricot beans, green beans and asparagus. Stir to mix well and cook together for 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.

This preliminary cooking of the vegetables in oil is important to add flavour to the minestrone.

Stage 12 - ⌛ 35 min.

Moisten with 2 litres water and add 2 chicken stock cubes.

Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and leave to simmer gently until all the vegetables are well cooked.

Stage 13 - ⌛ 10 min.

Then add the tomatoes, check seasoning and leave to cook for a further 10 minutes.

Stage 14

Serve hot on its own, or accompanied by slices of toasted bread spread with pesto, or a little grated Parmesan.

Remarks

Ideally a minestrone should include at least 5 vegetables, but they can be any you choose, so you can vary this recipe in both ingredients and proportions.
You can also add a cupful of rice along with the vegetables. There are those who consider that this should replace the haricot beans, but I think it's good with both.

Minestrone is even better reheated the following day.

Keeping: Several days in the fridge.

Source: Home made.

Nutritional information

	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats	Calories	Energy
Per 100 g	1 g RDI=2 %	5 g RDI=2 %	2 g RDI=3 %	43 kcal RDI=2 %	183 kJ RDI=2 %
Per person	9 g RDI=15 %	43 g RDI=16 %	17 g RDI=24 %	361 kcal RDI=18 %	1,513 kJ RDI=18 %
Whole recipe	57 g RDI=89 %	258 g RDI=97 %	106 g RDI=146 %	2,168 kcal RDI=108 %	9,079 kJ RDI=108 %