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Minestrone recipe

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Rating:

4.5/ 5 stars 35 Votes
  • Cuisine: Italian
  • Prep Time: 15 min(s)
  • Cook Time: 40 min(s)
  • Serves 10

This fabulous touch-your-heart soup full of fresh vegetables was eaten at least once a week as Stefano was growing up. The use of parmesan rind to deepen the flavour is very clever.
Minestrone is a soup that gets better with age, so while it’s good the day you make it, it’s even better the day after.

Looking for a truly hearty meal? You might also like our minestrone soup recipe. Or, take a look at our collection of culturally diverse soup recipes.

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, diced
8 garlic cloves, each cut into 3–4 pieces
1 celery heart including the pale, tender leaves, sliced
2 large or 4–5 smaller carrots, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cups roughly chopped savoy cabbage
2 bay leaves
1 cup fresh flageolet beans, or other fresh (or cooked dried) beans
350 g waxy potatoes such as desiree, peeled and diced
200 g tinned Italian tomatoes, crushed
100 g carnaroli rice
salt
150 g spinach, roughly chopped
1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
60 g parmesan rind, cut into 1 cm cubes
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated parmesan to serve

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Preparation

Level of difficulty: easy

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pot and add the onion, garlic, celery heart, carrot, cabbage and bay leaves. Lightly fry the vegetables for 2–3 minutes without letting them colour. Stir in the beans, potato and tomato, then cover the ingredients with water. Once the soup comes to the boil, add the rice and turn down to a simmer. Add a few good pinches of salt and simmer for 20–25 minutes.

Add the spinach, parsley and parmesan rind and simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and taste for seasoning, adding extra salt if needed, and pepper. Serve with plenty of grated parmesan and crusty bread.

SBS cook’s notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55–60 g, unless specified.

If you enjoyed this Minestrone recipe then browse more Italian recipes, soup recipes, stew recipes, vegetarian recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.

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Comments (10)

Previous Page 1 | 2 Next
04 Jun 2011 12:46 AEST
Velvet
Central Vic
Printing recipe
Maecus, if you go to the top of the page, and click 'print' (next to the 'email to a friend'), the recipe will appear in a separate window excluding comments, etc. YOu should then be able to save as an .xps, .pdf, etc.
Agree(1 people agree)
Disagree(2 people disagree)
03 Jun 2011 12:50 AEST
ili
maecus, just highlight the wanted text, click on File, down to Print, and click Selection, then click Print, and you only will have the actual receipe (or whatever you select) printing. This is what I did, perfect result.
Agree(0 people agree)
Disagree(2 people disagree)
31 Jul 2010 04:28 AEST
gianni
Dalton
not a minestrone
My Italian family has been making minestrone for ages. Our recipe is the best. This is a small variation and it shouldn't be called minestrone. We use many more vegetables and switch gas off and let the pot rest to finish the cooking to avoid burning vitamins with the hot stove.
Agree(11 people agree)
Disagree(33 people disagree)
10 Jun 2010 12:03 AEST
Kaz
Surfers Paradise
Bellisimo
Fantastic, everyone asked for seconds, comments where - its just perfect....
Agree(3 people agree)
Disagree(2 people disagree)
03 Jun 2010 01:08 AEST
Lara
Hawthorn
Carnarolin Rice
@ Thea Matto - you can get carnaroli from good delis - most people will have no clue what it is. It's a short grain rice with fantastic texture. I bought mine from the Camberwell Market deli.
Agree(5 people agree)
Disagree(3 people disagree)
03 Jun 2010 01:06 AEST
Lara
Hawthorn
No Minestrone quite like it!
I was suspicious of all the leafy things and rice in minestrone - I used to cook them thick and brothy with pasta and now I know what I've been missing. The most delicate balance of flavours - go spend on carnaroli rice, it's worth it!
Agree(5 people agree)
Disagree(1 people disagree)
31 May 2010 08:20 AEST
maecus
Could the presentation of the recipe be simplified for the print version, like excluding the comments and the ads?
Agree(10 people agree)
Disagree(2 people disagree)
31 May 2010 01:45 AEST
Thea Matto
Modbury
Yum
We cooked the soup for the family and they loved it. We used stock instead of water and as we did not know what carnaroli rice was we used risoni. When the grandchildren ask for a second plate , you know it is a winner. P.S if anyone out there know what carnaroli rice is please let me know as I could not find it.
Agree(5 people agree)
Disagree(3 people disagree)
   

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