What I love the most about minestrone soup is that there are no real rules.
It’s basically a veggie packed soup that’s Italian in origin and can be adjusted to align with any season.
For this recipe, I packed my minestrone with garden fresh summer veggies! This is a quick cooking soup with lots of flavor, so you don’t need to spend the entire day in the kitchen.
Try making this work with whatever veggies you have on hand, just remember, the harder veggies (carrots, celery, onion, etc.) go in towards the start and the softer veggies (zucchini, green beans, tomatoes, etc.) go in towards the end.
If you wanted to bulk this recipe up a bit, you could even add in some potatoes or pasta.
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Summer Minestrone Soup
If you are going for the vegan version, simply skip the cheese!
Calories:
Ingredients
- 1 onion cut into quarters and thinly sliced
- 1 bulb of fennel cored and sliced
- 3 gloves of garlic minced
- 6 cups of cold water
- 2 large tomatoes cored and cut into chunks (I did not bother to peel or seed them)
- 1 yellow squash quartered and sliced
- 1 green squash quartered and sliced
- 1-15 ounce can of kidney beans rinsed and drained
- 2 cups of green beans
- 2 teaspoons of olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- handful of fresh chopped basil
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add onion and a fat pinch of salt and saute until the onions begin to brown around the edges, about 5 minutes. Stir in the fennel and garlic and saute another 5 minutes or so, or until the fennel is tender.
- Add tomatoes and about 6 cups of cold water. Give it another hit of salt and pepper here, then crank that baby to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
- Add squash, greenbeans, and kidney beans. Simmer until veggies are tender, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in the fresh basil and serve with fresh grated parmesan and a pinch of hot pepper flakes (optional). Enjoy!