Weekend cooking is a meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads. It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.
If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog’s home page. For more information, see the welcome post.
I am not the greatest cook in the universe (not even close), so I am always reluctant to post recipes on my blog as I think:
- If I can make it, it’s probably very simple. Everyone can do it and I don’t need to actually post it.
- My photography skills come nowhere close to the amazing food blogs/sites that are out there, and so there’s no need to post about anything I try.
To be honest I still feel that way, but recently I got a couple of emails asking me to post a recipe of the minestrone soup that I instagrammed some time back and so here’s a short and simple recipe in case you want to give it a try.
I adapted this recipe from one I found on Nature’s Basket, which for some reason seems to have been taken down from the site.
Note: This recipe works best for about 6 people. Just adjust the quantity of veggies for smaller or larger groups.
- 1 large or 2 small carrots
- 3 tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 3 pods of garlic
- handful of french beans
- half a yellow zucchini
- half a green zucchini
- Regular olive oil (I use Oilitalia)
- Pepper
- Oregano
- Dried basil
- Parmesan Cheese
- Rajma/kidney beans
- Elbow Macaroni
- Soup cubes (I use Maggi cubes)
- Soak and drain the rajma overnight. Pressure cook till soft. Drain and keep aside.
- Boil the macaroni till soft. Drain and keep aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot. Add onion, garlic, and carrot. Fry for about 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add in zucchini, green beans, and diced tomatoes.
- Stir in two soup cubes and water. Add rajma and macaroni. Simmer until the veggies are tender, and the aroma starts to waft from the stockpot.
- Add salt and pepper, dried oregano and basil.
- Garnish with parmesan cheese.
- Serve hot. Best comfort food ever, plus it’s super healthy. What could be better?
Do you have some favorite recipes to share? If you ever do try this recipe, let me know how you liked it. If you have suggestions to tweak this recipe, let me know too 😊.
I love minestrone soup!! Hope to work on this meme sometime…..
Definitely comfort food at its best, and that is a great photo.
@couscousandconsciousness: Thanks for visiting and commenting on my post. I went up to your blog, you’ve got some great recipes there, will be a new follower now 🙂
Great recipe! I haven’t made minestrone soup for such a long time! A great idea now that it’s getting colder again in my part of the world. Thanks for sharing.
Easy is good when it comes to cooking, if you ask me. This looks and sounds delicious!
This looks really good–I’ll have to try the recipe. I love hearty vegetable soups this time of year.
I shall have to try this one – I love the fact that it only uses vegetables I like! And there’s no red peppers in it… 🙂
@Annie: You have something against red peppers? I love them, but not in soups
I don’t like the taste. 🙁
I’m practicing my food photography, but I’m a looooong way from good lol. I love the flavours in Minestrone but hate big ugly beans, I keep saying I’ll make a minestrone and just leave them out. I like your photo 🙂
@Teddyree: If you don’t like the beans, skip it. I don’t know…could you put in some chicken instead?
I did like the fullness factor of the soup once I put in the beans and the pasta. I wouldn’t have liked it as much without something a little heavier than veggies.
I can never seem to photograph food well, so I’ve given up trying..your picture looks fine though. It is definitely starting to be the time of year for soup.
Lovely soup. Just the thing for a weekend lunch. Cheers
Looks and sounds good! I have so many cans of kidney beans though, wonder if I could use them instead?
Most of us love recipes like this, I know I do! It’s simple, easy, quick and tastes yummy! I love this kind of recipe! And as far as the quality of your photo, it’s more than fine! You scooped up some veggies in the spoon so we could see them, that’s smart thinking!
@Vicki: Definitely use kidney beans. That’s what I used. I just used our slang for it (rajma). Canned kidney beans are great as you don’t have to do the initial boiling.
It’s so hard to photograph food… I’ve practically given up even trying! Minestrone is a cold weather favorite. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Yum! I love minestrone. All those veggies are so nutritious too. Perfect comfort food for chilly days.
This looks like a perfect soup for a fall afternoon. Thanks for sharing it!
That looks like the perfect soup for fall and winter.
My husband would love this- I am pinning it.
@Diane: Thanks for the pin :). Let me know how it worked out for you.
I am the *worst* food photographer ever! But I still like to share recipes. I love how easy this is and I bet you could make it with whatever vegetables happened to be in the house. This is absolutely comfort food at its best. Thanks so much for sharing it.
@Beth: Yes, it’s a pretty flexible recipe, I found. A lot of the veggies in the original recipe are not easily available in India, so I happily substituted wherever I could.