Vegan Minestrone Soup
24g protein
Recipe by Nikoleta · @surovadcerka
Minestrone is less a fixed recipe than a method: whatever is good that week goes in the pot, in the order it needs cooking. This version follows that logic, building from a base of onion, carrot, potato and celery, then finishing with the things that only want a few minutes — zucchini, snow peas, spinach.
The one departure worth knowing about is the liquid. Part of the vegetable broth is swapped for vegetable juice, which deepens the colour and gives the soup a rounder, sweeter tomato backbone than broth alone manages. If you don't have juice, water works and the soup is still good.
It comes together in forty minutes in a single pot, makes four generous bowls, and wants nothing more than toasted bread and a last drizzle of olive oil.
Ingredients
soup
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 150 g carrot
- 200 g potato
- 70 g celery stalk
- 70 g tomato paste, concentrated
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 can canned diced tomatoes
- 1 l vegetable broth
- 500 ml vegetable juice or water
- 80 g pasta
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 240 g canned white beans
- 80 g pea pods or bean pods
- 80 g zucchini
- 100 g fresh spinach, young leaves
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- fresh basil or parsley, for garnish
- 400 g bread
Contains: celery, gluten
How to make it
- In a pot over medium heat, sauté the finely chopped onion in oil until golden brown.
- Add minced garlic to the onion at the end of sautéing and cook for another minute, then add the chopped hard vegetables - carrots, potatoes, and celery.
- Stir in the tomato paste concentrate, oregano, and thyme with the vegetables. Mix everything together and sauté briefly until the vegetables soften slightly.
- Pour in the diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, and vegetable juice or water if you don't have juice on hand to the sautéed vegetables. Bring to a boil.
- Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes, adding the small pasta, bay leaf, black pepper, and salt to taste.
- Once the potatoes and pasta are cooked, fold in the rinsed beans, halved pods, diced zucchini, and spinach.
- Taste the soup and adjust seasoning as needed with lemon juice. When serving the soup, add fresh basil or an extra drizzle of olive oil. Serve with some toasted bread.
