Minetrone Soup with Meatballs

Where does the time go??? 

Thanks for stopping by, over the past several months I have not posted very often on my blog, but that does not mean I have not been cooking, baking, experimenting and trying new recipes. 

Recently I made Minestrone Soup. I was inspired by the book “The Blue Zone Diet” by Dan Buettner which is filled with all kinds of good for you recipes. 

I have never made Minestrone Soup, which was one of my fathers-in-law favorite’ soups, but I gave it a go and now it is one of our favorite soups! And on a cold wintry day it will warm your tummy and your soul.  

Like Gumbo you can add what you have left over from other meals or whatever vegetables you have on hand that need to be used, green beans, corn, any kind of canned beans, tomatoes and small sized pasta. 

As usual I looked in my pantry and fridge to see what I already had on-hand, did a little browsing around the web for a recipe and here is what I came up with:

Kary’s Minestrone Soup inspired by “The Blue Zone Diet” and Meli’s Family Minestrone. Traditional Minestrone Soup has some type of small pasta added in. I didn’t have any small pasta in my pantry, but in my fridge I did have one lone almost done baked potato and six meatballs left over from a meal we had recently so I decided to toss those in once the soup was cooked.  

Oh, still working on the exact measurements but as always working with what I have.  

Ingredients

Olive Oil

1 Sweet Yellow Onion diced

2 Peeled and diced Carrots

2 Stalks of Celery diced

3 Cloves of fresh garlic, diced

1 can each: black beans, pinto beans and kidney beans. Traditionally chickpeas, northern beans or any of this type are used however I used what I had in my pantry

1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes

1 14-to-15-ounce crushed tomatoes

6 cups of vegetable broth or water. I like the vegi broth because it adds more flavor.

Tiny pasta 

In a large pot over medium heat add a splash of Olive Oil and sauté the onion, carrots & celery for a few minutes until soft. Add the diced garlic, mix together than add the beans, tomatoes, broth, salt & pepper stir and bring to a boil, turn down to a low simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the vegi’s are soft.  

I also added one not fully cooked baked potato, I had this left over from another meal, so I chopped into bite size pieces and added it to the pot while the soup was simmering.  Once the vegetables were cooked, I also added the cooked meatballs to the soup, simmered a little longer to warm them.  

It really was yummy! Cheers! Just Cook Something~ Kary