Note
This recipe calls for cooked pea beans or garbanzo beans (chickpeas). If you use chickpeas, begin soaking them 3 ½ hours before you make the soup. After 2 soaking hours, cook them in boiling water for about 1 ½ hours – until comfortably chewable. If you use pea beans, you needn’t soak them, but give them 1 ½ – 2 hours to cook. In either case, if you cook the beans in plenty of water, save the extra water to use as stock for the soup. You’ll have a fuller-flavoured, higher-proteined minestrone.
1½ cups cooked pea or garbanzo beans (¾ cup raw)
½ cup dry pasta
1 cup fresh chopped tomatoes
Parmesan cheese
3 tbs Olive oil
1 cup chopped Onion
4 – 5 cloves crushed Garlic
1 cup minced Celery
1 cup cubed Carrot
1 cup cubed Eggplant or Zucchini
1 cup chopped Green Pepper
2 tsp Salt
¼ tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Oregano
½ cup fresh chopped Parsley
1 tsp Basil
2 cups Tomato Puree
3½ cups water or stock
3 tbs dry Red Wine
4 – 6 servings
- In a soup kettle, sauté garlic and onions in olive oil until they are soft and translucent.
- Add 1tsp salt, carrot, celery and eggplant. (if you use zucchini, add it with the green pepper)
- Mix well
- Add oregano, black pepper and basil
- Cover and cook over low heat 5 – 8 minutes
- Add green pepper, stock, puree, cooked beans and wine.
- Cover and simmer for 15 minutes
- Add tomatoes and remaining salt.
- Keep at lowest heat until 10 minutes before you plan to serve
- Then heat the soup to a boil, add pasta and boil gently until pasta is tender
- Serve immediately, topped with parsley and parmesan
From the Pen of ... 