Minestrone Soup

This Minestrone soup warms the soul! This classic soup recipe is healthy and can easily be made with seasonal veggies and items already on hand. Use the recipe as a guideline. Though, if using frozen ingredients, they do not need to cook for 2 hours. This recipe is certainly for a crowd. It makes somewhere between 15-20 cups of coup. Servings sizes are at about one cup person.

Servings:

Author: tbrooks1124

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil
3 T butter
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4-5 whole carrots, peeled and diced
4-5 ribs celery, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 lb fresh green beans, cut and soaked (or 1 small bag of frozen cut green beans)
2-3 zucchini, halved then chopped or diced
1 bunch swiss chard, chopped and washed
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
6-8 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 can white kidney beans any sort of white bean combo will be just fine
1 can garbanzo beans
2-3 chunks Parmesan rind cut the rind of the parm
2 tsp salt
1 box Ditalini pasta, cooked
Pesto and Freshly Grated Parm

Instructions

Select a large soup/stock pot. (I used an industrial stock pot.)
On medium-low to medium heat, add oil and butter to pot.
Cook onions until they turn gold, not brown. About 5 minutes.
About every 3 minutes, add the following and stir and repeat; carrots, celery, potatoes, zucchini, fresh green beans (if using frozen, wait until later), then chard.
Add crushed tomatoes, broth, Parmesan rind, and salt. Stir well. Cover pot with lid and cook for about 2 hours. Stir occasionally.
The soup will stick if the heat is too high. Dilute with water or broth if soup seems too thick.
When soup is nearly finished, add beans (and frozen green beans).
Adjust seasoning, as needed. Salt and pepper.
Add cooked pasta just before serving. Serve with Pesto and grated parm.