Minestrone with White Beans

42 min · Easy · Serves 1

560 kcal per serving · 27g protein

The Italian vegetable soup that is a meal in a bowl: a slow-softened base of onion, carrot and celery, courgette and tomatoes, then white beans and small pasta cooked right in the broth. The six minutes spent softening the vegetables at the start are where the flavour comes from, so that step is never rushed. Parmesan at the table turns it from soup into dinner.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• Onion, finely chopped × 1
• Carrot, in small dice × 1
• Celery stalk, in small dice × 1
• Courgette, in 1 cm dice × 1
• 1 clove Garlic clove, crushed
• 0.3 tsp Dried thyme
• 150 g Chopped canned tomatoes
• 350 ml Vegetable stock
• 130 g White beans (canned), drained and rinsed
• 30 g Small pasta (ditalini or broken spaghetti)
• 40 g Fresh spinach
• 2 g Salt
• 0.5 g Black pepper
• 20 g Parmesan, grated

Method

1. Soften the soup base

   

   Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, add the chopped onion, diced carrot and diced celery and cook for 6 minutes, stirring, until soft and the onion is translucent.

2. Add the courgette and garlic

   

   Add the diced courgette, crushed garlic and dried thyme and cook for 2 minutes, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant.

3. Simmer the broth

   

   Pour in the chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Cook the beans and pasta in the soup

   

   Add the drained white beans and the small pasta and simmer for 9 minutes, stirring now and then, until the pasta is tender.

5. Wilt in the spinach

   

   Stir in the spinach, salt and black pepper and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is wilted.

6. Serve with Parmesan

   

   Ladle the minestrone into a deep bowl and scatter the grated Parmesan over the top.