Nigella's White Minestrone Soup

Nigella's White Minestrone Soup

 

Serves: approx 6
Syns: either 2 per serving or 1/3 of a HEX A or B

(I usually halve the recipe and it still makes a big pot)

• 3 large onions, thinly sliced
• 5 carrots, diced
• 2 sticks celery, chopped fairly small
• 300g potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 courgettes, diced
• 100g French beans, cut into 1cm lengths
• 225g Savoy cabbage, shredded
• 1½ litres stock made with chicken Bovril (or use Vecon)
• rind of a finished piece of parmesan cheese (tip - I always save mine from the wedge and freeze them for this recipe!)
• 400g tin cannellini beans
• 150g small tubular pasta, such as ditalini
• 56g parmesan, grated freshly

Get a big pot and spray with Frylight. Add sliced onion and cook until the onion is softened but not browned. Add the chopped carrot and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring a couple of times. Do the same with the celery, potatoes, courgettes and French beans, cooking each one for a few minutes, stirring a few times. Then add the shredded cabbage and cook for about 6-8 minutes, stirring now and then.

Add the stock. Put in the end bit of cheese if you’ve got one, give a good stir and taste to see if any salt is needed. (The cheese rind will give a small saline kick of its own, and remember if you’re using stock cubes that they can be very salty.)

Cover the pan, and cook at a gentle boil for 2-2½ hours (if halving the recipe you will probably only need about 45mins-1hr), stirring occasionally. The soup should be thick, so you have to cook it for long enough to lose any wateriness, but it has to have enough liquid in it at this stage for the pasta to absorb while it’s cooking. If the soup is too thick when you’ve finished cooking it but before you put in the pasta then add some water.

Now remove the lid, add the white beans and cook for 5 minutes, then turn up the heat slightly and put the pasta in. It should cook in about 15 minutes. When it’s ready, take out the parmesan rind, grate in the fresh parmesan and give the pan a good stir.

I like this sprinkled with a few dried crushed chillies.