Chunky Vegetarian Minestrone Soup Recipe

The temperature is dropping outside, and in some areas we now even have snow, which means that it is perfect soup weather! I love a good soup, especially one that leaves you feeling rather angelic at all the goodness you packed in! I also find soup a really good way to get a lot of veggies into my fussy little eater because as long as she can’t see them she’ll eat them! In my opinion, this is one of the the best winter warmer soups around. If you’re following Slimming World, this soup is completely Syn Free and evening if you’re simply just eating healthily, with more than your 5 a day packed in, this soup will leave you feeling warm from the inside out! Here is my Chunky Vegetarian Minestrone Soup which is a one pot wonder and can also be done in the slow cooker!

Quick List of Ingredients (serves 4-6)

1 onion, diced

3 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks

3 tomatoes, quartered

2 parsnips, peeled and chopped into chunks

125g each of spinach

125g Cabbage, shredded

Low Calorie Cooking Spray

1 Litre of Vegetable Stock (obviously you can swap for beef but you’d need to syn this)

3 tsp of Italian Seasoning

1 carton of passata

150g of dried pasta (the smaller the shape the better)

400g can of butter beans in water

Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Put a really big pot on a medium heat and pop in some cooking spray and sauté the onion for 5 minutes. Then add the Italian seasoning and cook for a further two minutes

2. Now, into the pot chuck in the carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and parsnips, as well as the stock and the passata. Bring it to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for an hour or until the veg begins to soften.

3. At this point, pop in the pasta too, give it a stir and leave until the pasta is almost cooked. Pop in the Spinach, Cabbage and Butter beans and cook for the final 5 minutes!

4. Season to taste and BOOM! You got yourself a mighty fine soup!

Top Tips:

*I have found that this soup freezes fine, so go ahead and double the recipe and fill your freezer.

*If you want a runnier soup, add as much liquid as you like…make it half stock and half passata!

*If you don’t like chunky soup, by all means give it a blitz for a nice creamy smooth soup – this is what I give to my fussy little eater and it makes it nice and smooth. Add a little cream to make it runnier and yet creamy.