Cookbook Challenge - Week 12 - Minestrone Soup

I'm rediscovering my Moosewood cookbooks (or discovering them for the first time!). This soup recipe is from The New Moosewood Cookbook (Mollie Katzen's Classic Cooking). I was surprised how thick the soup is, and I did adjust it slightly along the way, so here's my version. I loved it and also shared it with my parents and my aunt who also really enjoyed it - in fact we ate it for lunch a couple days in a row! I think this recipe is one that can easily be adapted to what you might have in your fridge to use up too.

Minestrone
serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 2 TB olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onion (I just used 2 medium onions)
• 5 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 stalk celery, minced
• 1 medium carrot, diced (I used two med-small)
• 1 small zucchini diced (or 1 cup diced eggplant)
• 1 small yellow squash diced
• 1 1/2 tsp oregano
• fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 tsp basil (dried) or 1 TB fresh chopped basil
• 1 medium bell pepper, diced (I had some sweet baby peppers to use up and so used about 5 of those plus about 1/4 of a green pepper that I had previously diced and frozen)
• 3-4 cups of water (or more to the consistency you prefer)
• 1 28oz can tomato puree
• 1 15 oz can cannelini beans (or chick peas)
• 1 cup dry pasta (any shape) (I used rotini)
• 2 medium sized ripe tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup freshly minced parsley
• fresh grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add onion, garlic and salt. Saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes, then add celery, carrot, eggplant (if using), oregano, black pepper, basil. Cover and cook over very low heat and about 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add bell pepper, zucchini, water and tomato puree. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes. Add beans and simmer another 5 minutes.
3. Bring the soup to a gentle boil. Add pasta, stir and cook until the pasta is tender. Stir in the diced fresh tomatoes and serve right away, topped with parsley and parmesan.

This recipe freezes well! I froze several servings when I made this and easily defrosted and ate it later in the week. A very filling lunch soup!