Minestrone Soup – A great twist to the usual lunch box

Today’s recipe is a classic Italian soup. Can anyone guess??  Yes, it is the Minestrone soup. I remember having this soup about 2 years back in an Italian restaurant and I was so surprised to see Pasta added to it along with a lot of vegetables and beans (red or white varieties are used). Cannot remember the name of the restaurant though (it was in Abu Dhabi). I loved the soup especially because it was very filling and was bursting with flavour along with its nutritional value. Recently, one of my friends requested for this soup recipe and I thought I should upload it on the blog!! Hope my friend N would be so happy to have this recipe..You can add pretty much all the vegetables available in your kitchen. The classic recipe calls for Zucchini and white beans. I did not have Zucchini and the white beans can easily be replaced by the red kidney beans or Rajma. The colour of the soup depends on the ingredients used. As I have used Rajma here, the colour of the soup is slightly brownish. If you use white beans and fully ripe red tomatoes, it would be more reddish..

Another interesting fact about this soup is that it could be carried as lunch in an insulated container as shown in the pictures. Very filling, healthy and tasty lunch especially for people who are more diet conscious. A great recipe for kids too as they all love pasta. Try this and let me know what you think about it.

Ingredients:

Method:

1. Boil the red kidney beans with enough water and keep aside.

2. In a big heavy bottomed vessel, add extra virgin olive oil. Add garlic and wait till the raw smell goes. After that, add diced onions.

3. Once the onions are translucent, add the vegetables. Saute them well and add the tomatoes. Pour in the vegetable broth. Add the potatoes and the pasta to this and allow to cook on medium flame. You can also add the Italian seasoning at this stage. Add salt and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the red kidney beans and cook for about 10 more minutes or until the soup has thickened according to your desired consistency. Check for seasoning again and add more salt if needed. Stir and switch off the flame.

4. Garnish using the crushed cashew powder. If you are not on a dairy free diet, you can garnish with parmesan cheese. This is a dairy free recipe, hence using the cashews.

5. Serve hot or pour it into an insulated container and carry it for your lunch. You can give a surprise to your kids by sending it for his / her lunchbox. I am sure they would be super excited to see the soup for their lunch.

Hope you all liked the idea of “soup in lunchbox” today..Let me know..

Sending this recipe to the Kids Lunchbox recipe event run by Indusladies.com