Vegetable Minestrone Recipe

Summer is great for trying out new vegetable recipes. This one I spied at First Tunnels and the original recipe can be found here.

Luckily in Spain we get plenty of tasty organic vegetables, so getting fresh tomatoes, carrots and beans stated as ingredients was not a problem. The preparation is very simple and you easily can cook it as a first course for lunch or dinner.

The difference of this recipe from the one I read before is that it includes plenty of fresh herbs that add flavour. Don’t forget to serve it with Italian Parmesan and also add some dry white wine to make the taste deeper and richer. So here are the ingredients

Ingredients:

•  3 liters of water
• 1 bundle of washed Swiss chard
• 2 cups of shredded green cabbage
• 4 tomatoes
• 2 tins (410 ml) of cannellini beans (rinse them before cooking)
• 2 carrots diced into small cubes
• 4 cloves of minced garlic
• 2 medium courgettes, quartered lengthwise and diced into ½ cm cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon marine salt
• 1/2 cup of dry white wine
• 1 tin (410 ml) of chickpeas that have been rinsed and drained
• 1 parmesan cheese rind
• 4 cups of chicken broth
• 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup of freshly shredded parmesan

Preparation:

1. Bring water to the boil. Cut the stems from the Swiss chard leaves and chop them. Chiffonade the leaves into strips. Set aside separately.
2. Remove the skin from tomatoes – you can do it very easily if you put them in boiling water for around 30 seconds and then place into the cold one. Cut them and set aside.
3. Blend half of cannellini beans with 1/2 of water and set aside.
4. Saute garlic in the olive oil in a large pot for around 2 minutes. After that, add courgette, carrots, chard stems, and salt. Cook them until vegetables get tender (around 5 minutes).    Add in the white wine and cabbage, and then stir until cabbage wilts (2 to 3 minutes).
5. Add in the reserved chard leaves, the whole cannellini beans, chopped tomatoes, the cannellini bean purée, chickpeas, the parmesan rind, and chicken broth. Bring to the boil, and then simmer until all vegetables get soft, around 15 minutes. Serve topped with grated parmesan cheese.

Bon Appétit!