minestrone soup

James got a cold this week, which called for some made to order soup. I used to dislike celery in soup and always replaced it with zucchini, but I think I'm starting to come around to it as a flavor. There is something really nice about a simple ingredient comfort food soup. Especially in this weather. We had enough for about two nights of leftovers, but I did need to add some extra stock later in the week. You can see on the side we also had corn muffins (with butter and maple syrup).

ingredients:

1 small onion
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 celery sticks chopped
1 potato cubed
1 can stewed tomatoes with juice
3/4 cup cannellini beans
1 cup mini wheels
3 cups veggie stock (I prefer bouillon cubes to pre-made stock)
fresh dill and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot fry chopped onion and garlic in olive oil until clear.

Add carrot, celery, and potato. Keep stirring to avoid burning the veggies

You will probably want to chop the stewed tomatoes a bit before you add them into the soup. The brand I buy always seems to have very large slices. Pour in your tomato juice first and then you can easily get the tomatoes out with a fork. I know that seems like it would be the obvious thing to do, but I've spent lots of time fishing around trying to find the last tomato at the bottom of the sauce.

Stir in cannolini and dill. Add veggie stock. Cover and reduce heat to low.

Once your potatoes are almost cooked through, add pasta and boil again for 8 minutes (or whatever is recommended for your pasta).

Taste your soup and see if it wants more spices. I don't add any extra salt since the bouillon cubes I buy are salty enough, but pepper and more dill can be nice (especially for a cold).

Serve with grated Parmesan.