Minestrone Soup

 Today's beautiful Minestrone Soup recipe is from Adelina Kitchen, Dromana.  Dromana is a beautiful seaside town near Melbourne and we love driving up there for the beaches, the scenery, the food and the wineries.  I follow a lot of food sites, always on the look out for a good recipe.  When I saw this recipe I realised that Adelina had packed as many veggies as she could in the soup.  Perfect for the cold Melbourne evenings!  So I rushed to the shops and got us some stone baked sour dough bread and all the vegetables needed for the soup.  Thanks to Adelina, I also learnt a new word, Mirepoix - and how to do it!

Ingredients:

1 cup diced brown onions

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced celery

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

5 bay leaves (I used dried ones)

1 bunch radish ( original recipe calls for silver beet, but there was none in the shop)

leaves of the radish shredded finely, and radish cubed

1/2 a savoy cabbage, shredded

2 cans chopped tomatoes

3 potatoes, cubed

1 medium zucchini, insides scooped out and diced

2 cans cannellini beans

4 cups chicken stock ( or vegetable stock, for vegetarians)

salt 

pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

freshly shredded parmesan to serve (optional)

Method:

In a cast iron pot, heat oil, add the onions, carrots, celery and bay leaves. In low heat, cook the carrots, onions and celery without burning it, till you can smell the fragrance of the vegetables and the bay leaves wafting through.  This can take up to 15 minutes. Take care not to burn the onions.  This is your flavour base or mirepoix.

Next, add the chopped tomatoes and bring to the boil. Add the shredded cabbage and cook for 10 minutes till the cabbage wilts.

Next add the stalks and leaves of the radish, stock, zucchini, salt and pepper and cook for another 15 minutes. Lastly, add the cubed potatoes and the cannellini beans and cook for another 15 minutes till the potatoes are soft. Sprinkle the oregano over the soup.

Serve hot with crusty bread and freshly grated parmesan if using.