Minestrone con Lenticchie e Fagioli (Vegetable Soup with Lentils & Beans)

Sydney's cold spell called for an old favourite - Minestrone con Lenticchie. Minestrone is a traditional Italian vegetable soup that usually includes rice or pasta. You can mix this recipe up as much or as little as you like. Add more, less or different vegetables. Add rice instead of pasta. Add beans instead of lentils. The combinations are endless, but you are guaranteed a delicious and hearty soup that is the perfect comfort food on a cold winter's night. My boy's weren't overly keen on this dish, however in their own words, they "struggle with vegetables" lol! My husband and I loved it and there was plenty for lunch leftovers which is always a bonus! Next time, I think I'll add extra lentils and make it even thicker :)

Minestrone con Lenticchie

Serves 6-8

1 clove garlic, crushed
2 potatoes, chopped into small cubes
2-3 baby carrots, sliced thinly
1 stalk of celery, sliced
3-4 silver beet spinach leaves, sliced/shredded
Light olive oil
1 cup dry green lentils, pre-soaked for approx. 2 hours
3/4 x 400g tin Borlotti Beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste/homemade tomato sauce
1 vegetable stock cube/vegetable paste
Approx 3.5 litres of water
250g short pasta
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Place garlic and chopped vegetables in a large saucepan. Add a dash of olive oil and stir over medium heat for a few minutes so that vegetables become coated in oil and the smell of garlic starts to permeate.

2. Add drained lentils to the saucepan, along with tomato paste and crushed stock cube. I use vegetable stock paste made in the Thermomix. My current batch is quite salty so I put less than I normally would.

3. Fill saucepan with water (approximately 3.5 litres) and bring to the boil.

4. Once the soup is boiling, turn down the heat and let it simmer gently for at least 1 hour. The longer it is left, the better it tastes.


5. Add pasta along with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until pasta is to your liking.

6. Garnish with a  drizzle of oil and some shaved Parmesan. It's delicious served with some crusty bread!

Pasta e Broccoli

Most Italians, or at least Southern Italians, will recognise this traditional dish - pasta e broccoli (pasta and broccoli). As a child, you either loved it or hated it. As an adult, you will love the simplicity of this dish and the amount of time it takes to cook (it's very quick). My children all eat it, but best of all, my youngest and fussiest child eats it every time! Hallelujah!

 

 

Pasta e Broccoli

 

Serves 4-6

 

1-2 heads of broccoli

1-2 potatoes

300g spaghetti

oil

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese (optional)

 

 

1. Clean broccoli and chop up into small pieces. I usually discard the thicker parts of the stem. Apparently, the florets are packed with the most nutrients anyway so this is okay. The florets cook the fastest, and that is why I prefer to just use them and not the thicker stems. However, there is no reason you can't include the stems.

 

2. Peel and chop potatoes into small bite size pieces.

 

3. Place broccoli and potatoes in a saucepan with water. Ensure the saucepan is large enough to also cook the pasta in. Place on stove top on high and bring to the boil. Leave it boil for at least 10 minutes so that the potatoes and broccoli become half cooked.

 

4. Meanwhile, break or snap your spaghetti into 2-3cm pieces. You don't need to be precise, so long as they are short enough to be picked up with a spoon. You can buy spaghetti already cut into smaller pieces but sometimes it's therapeutic to stand there snapping pasta!





The snapped pasta

5. Add the pasta to the half cooked broccoli and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and add a touch of olive oil. Continue boiling until the pasta is cooked to your liking.

 

6. Then, simply dish out ready for eating. It is lovely served with fresh grated Parmesan on top.

 

 

Notes:

 

Some people mash the broccoli and potatoes up completely before adding the pasta. I have done this in the past when my children refused to eat broccoli, but I'm now able to leave it a little more intact :)

 

Amounts of pasta and other ingredients are easily adjustable and will depend on how many adults/children are eating and whether you are having this dish as a meal on its own or as a starter.

 

Are you familiar with this dish? Do you make it in a different way?