We unfortunately took a very long hiatus from our blog. Among the many reasons for this break was a freezer containing an overabundance of homemade soup. As supplies are now depleted, we are back to cooking, and just in time for the beginning of fall.
Here is Charmaine Solomon's recipe for vegetarian minestrone, which seems a perfect way to use the wonderful produce available this time of year. We've made another of Solomon's soups before - the complex and fragrant Indonesian Spicy Chicken Soup. It was a notable success, so we're excited to give this one a try.
From Complete Vegetarian Cookbook by Charmaine Solomon
8 oz. dried haricots verts or a mixture of dried beans2 tablespoons olive oil1 cup chopped onion3 cloves garlic, finely diced1 stalk celery, finely diced1 large carrot, diced1 small can tomatoes8 cups vegetable stock1/2 cup fine, small pasta1 cup sliced or diced zucchini1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese4 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Soak the dried beans in cold water to cover overnight. The next day, drain and cover with fresh water and simmer until almost tender.
In a heavy-based saucepan, heat the olive oil for a few minutes. Add the onion, garlic, celery, and carrot. Cover and cook over very low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stock, then cover and summer for 1 hour.
Add the pasta, zucchini, and more boiling stock if necessary. When pasta is tender the soup is ready to be served, with parmesan cheese and parsley sprinkled over the top.
Joining from Michigan - Ellen's Version
So fun to be part of this soup blog! It's an honor to join these good cooks as an aunt and midway between geographically--I'll have to check the miles.
Minestrone was a perfect choice to start. Who doesn't have onions, garlic, celery, tomatoes and onions on hand? I also happen to have a couple of Parmesan rinds in the freezer and a glut of green beans in my garden along with parsley and home grown garlic. I decided on yellow squash rather than zucchini for the color. I decided to finish off some chicken broth as part of the liquid rendering it non-vegetarian but the fridge can always use a clean-out.
All said, a quick and easy delicious soup for today and several lunches. Thanks Cassandra for the recipe and happy cooking.
Maybe a nice fall borscht next? I found a nice vegetarian recipe.
Ann's Version
I used an heirloom Soldier Bean grown in Maine. The beans are white, about 1/2 inch long when dry and have a red marking on the seam side that is shaped just like a soldier standing at attention, hence the name. I did a quick soak (bring to a boil, cover and turn off the heat and let sit an hour), then simmered the beans with salt, pepper and a few fresh bay leaves until they were just barely tender. Drained the beans and got on with the rest of the soup. I sauteed the onion, garlic and carrots but discovered I had no celery (perhaps a first for me!). In the herb garden there was a small clump of lovage that had just come back up after a lush spring growth then dying back in the summer heat and it tastes very strongly of celery so I used about 1 tsp. of that and a couple of teaspoons of celery salt. I'm not crazy about cooked celery so the substitution actually tasted better!
I wanted to use cherry tomatoes instead of canned and tried a trick I'd recently read about where you put the washed cherry tomatoes on a plate, cover it with another plate and then cut horizontally between the plates while holding the top one flat. Works great! I cut a whole basket of tomatoes in one sweep much faster than halving them individually. You do need a big, very sharp knife though.
When the vegetables were soft I added the tomatoes, a couple of parmesan rinds from my freezer bag full, and chicken stock since I don't care if it's vegetarian and I've never found a commercial vegetable broth that doesn't taste very strongly of one vegetable (usually celery unfortunately). After it simmered for an hour I added the drained beans, farfalline (a tiny bowtie pasta) and a couple of pattypan squash (beautifully speckled green and yellow) cubed small. It simmered then for about 15 min. until everything was tender. Then I added a couple of big tablespoons of basil pesto I'd made last night. That really made a huge difference for the good!
The soup was really delicious and filling. The original recipe was pretty minimalist--hardly any seasoning and not even salt and pepper--and I noticed she never mentions when to add the beans. The parmesan rinds, bay leaves, chicken broth and particularly the pesto made this recipe one I'll definitely use again.
Cassie's Version
I finally got around to making this soup, and it's very good! Since the recipe was so basic, I only used it as a guide, and I really loved the end result.
I started by cooking dried kidney beans with bay leaves, garlic, and peppercorns. They ended up a bit mushier than I had intended - I always seem to do that with beans - but they mostly held together. I discovered my celery was a little passed its prime, so I omitted it, and added dried Mexican oregano to the carrot and onion. I then threw in sliced yellow pear tomatoes and broth. I was too impatient to wait an hour for that to simmer, so I instead waited half the length of a Gilmore Girls episode (22.5 minutes). (Rory and Lorelai are no longer speaking, because Rory stole a yacht, got arrested, and dropped out of Yale. But I digress.)
Because I seem to add greens and dried chile to everything, I added fresh pea shoots from the farmers' market and several shakes of Aleppo pepper along with the zucchini and pasta (I also used mini farfalle - so cute!). I'm not sure if Dhruva will be eating this, as he's currently out of town and also currently not as big a fan of soup as I am... but I refrained from adding cheese for his sake, and shook in some nutritional yeast instead to add that elusive umami taste. Once I put the beans in, I did have to add more water, and of course some fresh ground black pepper and a squeeze of lemon at the very end.
A very delicious soup!
