Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Soup's On...


When this quarter's Pinterest Challenge was announced, I took a quick look through my "Crafty Ideas" and "DIY" folders on Pinterest, but wasn't really feeling inspired (mainly because I was looking for zero effort). So I headed over to the "Recipes" folder - I'm not a cook at all, but I have sooooo many recipes pinned it's crazy. I also like to watch cooking shows. Weird I know.

Anyway, with the hurricane coming, it seemed like good soup weather, so I went right to the Minestrone soup recipe I'd pinned from Better Homes and Gardens.


It was super easy and super delicious. The recipe as it appears on the BHG site calls for 

ingredients
  • 1
    28 ounce can diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
  • 2
    cups water
  • 1
    14 - 15 ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
  • 1
    cup low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
  • 1
    medium yellow sweet pepper, chopped
  • 2
    teaspoons Italian seasoning or 1 teaspoon each dried basil and garlic powder
  • 1
    cup dry rigatoni or penne pasta
  • 2 - 3
    cups baby spinach
    Shaved Parmesan and/or fresh basil (optional)

I didn't have the yellow pepper so I skipped it and used a chopped up small onion instead and I used the vegetable stock to make it vegetarian. I may add some frozen string beans next time.

The directions are two simple steps.

directions
1.In a Dutch oven combine the tomatoes, water, beans, broth, sweet pepper, seasoning, and pasta. Bring to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to medium. Cook, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, just until pasta is barely tender.
2.Stir in spinach. Ladle into soup bowls. Top with Parmesan cheese and/or fresh basil.


My vegetable stock was frozen, but trust me, it is not homemade. I buy the big cartons of it and freeze what I don't use.


Prior to adding spinach.


Right after putting spinach in.


After cooking spinach down.


Finished soup. Yummmmm.

I don't see any reason to ever buy canned minestrone again. Seriously, this was that quick and easy.

I'll be linking up to the Pinterest Challenge posts here, here, here, and here, so stop over and check out all the "Pinspiring" projects.



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