Minestrone soup is one of our favourites and i have not cooked it in.. 2 1/2 years!
So i decided one day.. late in the evening that i wanted to make this, since my supply of veggies just got delivered. and if anyone is interested, i order my veggies from Fruit N Vegie Direct.
So i chopped up all the veggies i had and tada!
Veggie Goodness in a bowl!
Ingredients
*You can really use what veggies you have on hand, these were roughly what i used
350g Green Beans
2 carrots
1 large onion
3 garlic cloves
2 desiree potatoes
2 stalks of celery
4 slice of bacon (optional)
1 spicy chorizo (optional)
1 can of diced tomatoes
Tomato Paste
Mixed dried herbs
3 bay leaves
4 cups water
Some white button mushrooms
Fresh corn kernels (frozen would do just fine too)
Chicken stock paste (optional)
Directions
Chop up your veggies into pieces. Not too big and not too small (in case they get too soft and mushy)
Leave the skins of the potatoes on for extra nutrients and they don't really make a difference anyway.
Bacon, if you like them. They melt into the sauce and you can't really bite into a piece of bacon. They're mainly there for flavour.
One spicy chorizo that we bought from the Eveleigh Markets at Redfern. These really made the soup spicy. i was even contemplating putting 2 of these. One of definitely enough. If you don't want it spicy, just use normal chorizos then.
In the pressure cooker, i use the saute function and fry off my bacon first, to render the fats. Then i add the chorizo in as well. When they get nice and brown, i added my onions to caramelize. When my onions are about done, add in your garlic. Fry fry fry..
Then i add in all my other veggies (i added the mushroom and corn kernels last). Give them a good mix around.
Add 4 cups of water. I gave it a good squeeze of my chicken stock paste (just to add some more flavour), add a can of diced tomatoes.
Stir them all together and you get the above picture.
Looks yummy enough already!
Then i cover the lid and cooked it under medium pressure for 30 minutes.
Watched tv for 30 minutes.
Came back, released the steam manually – takes around 2 minutes.
Open the lid and this is what you get!
The veggies have all cooked down and the fats rendered.
At this point, we tried the soup. It was peppery all right! But it's a flavour you get used it and it ain't that bad. but i found it slightly thin, so i added around 3 tbsp of tomato paste.
It definitely upped the tomato-y flavour and made the soup thicker.
I changed the settings to saute and let the soup boil down a little as well.
All it takes now for a complete meal is some pasta!
Any type you like, macaroni or broken spaghetti are all fine! Something you can eat with a spoon.
Yum Yum Yum. Perfect for a cold winter night. Warm and spicy. Healthy too!
*By the way, this can totally be cooked on the stove-top. Just follow the same steps and cook it partially covered until the potatoes and carrots are soft. It will take longer but be just as delicious!
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