More thoughts on minestrone....

We had a HUMUNGO thunderstorm last night.  If you’ve never experienced a Florida thunderstorm, they are overachievers – big boisterous booms and flashes of light that light up the sky like someone forgot to turn the fluorescent lights off.  Show offs.  Anyway, following that storm (that woke me up and kept me up for a while, by the way) was a cool front.  Seriously.  It was 45 degrees this morning!  Brr!  But, I wasn’t complaining – the past couple of days have been around 80 degrees with around 90% humidity.  Disgusting.  Can I get a good hair day, please?!

Anyway, I had originally planned on grilling (of course) but, when the hubby asked for something that didn’t require much effort to eat – let’s just say he spent some quality time with the dentist today – and Thing 1 is still trying to get over strep and sinus issues, soup sounded like a really good idea.  So many choices!!  I decided on a minestrone.  I do love my veggies and, everything is cut pretty small which would be easy on the hubby’s sore teeth and Thing 1’s sore throat.  I was pretty disappointed with that minestrone bowl I made about 6 weeks ago and I wasn’t up to attempting it again so I looked elsewhere for a recipe.  Found what looked like a good one in 1,000 Lowfat Recipes.  And, I only needed a couple of ingredients from the store which was a total bonus for a last-minute decision! 

This soup definitely hit the mark for deliciousness.  YUM!  And, it was easy.  It took about an hour to cook and, if you pre-chop the veggies in the morning/night before, will take even less time to put together after a long day at work.  I opted for chickpeas – choices were chickpeas, any leftover beans or pasta.  Well, we had leftover beans but they were barbecue beans and …. um, nope, didn’t think that was going to work.  We didn’t have leftover pasta but I did have a lovely can of chickpeas just waiting to be used so – Winner!  I think the chickpeas were perfect.  They added a nice amount of protein and a great texture in combination with the veggies.  If you go for pasta, I would recommend cooking the pasta less than al dente and then adding it to the soup.  If you cook the pasta completely, it might be mushy in the soup.  And you don’t want that.  Ick.  I also made a small change with the tomato juice.  I used V8 and, since I had small cans, I ended up using 6 of them.  I only had 5 regular so the last one was spicy hot V8.  Added a nice kick of flavor to the soup.  Thing 1, in all her sinusy, stuffed up glory, even managed to pick up on the spice.  Hooray – she’s on the mend!  It wasn’t out-of-control spicy; just yummy.

I also made some bread to go along with the soup.  Seemed like a good idea.  Okay, I didn’t make the bread from scratch which I normally do because who doesn’t love a fresh from the oven baguette?  But, the other night, Thing 1 brought something up at dinner – in fact, I believe that day I DID make a fresh baguette! – about a bread I used to make with regularity.  It’s pretty easy and ends up in a cool shape.  I chose flower today.  You’ll see in the photos – so cute!  Anyway, The Pampered Chef® used to make these really cool bread tubes and all you have to do is put in the Pillsbury® refrigerated French loaf and bake away.  Yay!  If you come across any of those bread tubes, I recommend snatching one up – the bread is perfect toasted for crostini or bruschetta or other appetizers. J

Here’s the soup recipe.  Happy cooking, eating and drinking!

Minestrone

Makes 6 servings

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 ribs celery, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

One 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, with juice

½ cup chopped green cabbage

1 carrot, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 cups water or reduced-sodium, defatted chicken broth (I used broth for healing goodness)

4 cups tomato juice

2/3 cup cooked chickpeas (or any other leftover bean or pasta)

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon dried thyme

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan.  Add the onions and celery.  Cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes.  If more cooking liquid is needed, add some juice from the canned tomatoes.  Stir occasionally.

Add the garlic and cook for 5 minutes more.

Crush the tomatoes with your hands as you add them and the juice from the can to the sautéed vegetables.

Add the remaining ingredients and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes.

Per Serving: Calories 152; Protein 5g; Fat 6g (Saturated 1g); Carbohydrates 24g; Fiber 4g; Sodium 826mg