Minestrone Soup

 Italian Minestrone makes full use of fresh beans and Cavolo Nero, or black cabbage, but these two ingredients can easily be substituted with tinned Cannelini beans and Spring greens.

The resulting soup is not far off a ‘guid ham broth’ and equally tasty.

300g beans - borlotti or cannelini

2 onions finely chopped

1 garlic clove finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

200g streaky bacon chopped

3 diced carrots

2 leeks, diced

3 potatoes peeled and diced

2 celery sticks, diced

150g frozen peas

2 chopped tomatoes

300g spring greens, chopped

2 bay leaves

3 fresh basil leaves

Ham stock (home made is the best)

Optional extra - 250 g rice, or 300g chopped spaghetti.

It’s the usual method for making a broth, sweat all the veg and bacon in the oil, then cover with stock, adding water to cover the vegetables and beans.

Boil until all the vegetables are tender, then add rice or pasta if you want to have a thicker soup. 

I like to serve with some chopped roast ham and a dollop of Creme Fraiche. Parsley goes nicely aswell.

To make a supper soup, a warm ciabatta goes down a treat!