Italian minestrone with finely diced vegetables

Italian minestrone with finely diced vegetables: a light vegetable soup with carrot, celery, courgette, cannellini beans, tomatoes, pasta and parsley.

At a glance

• Serves 4
• Prep time: 20 min
• Cooking time: 25 min
• Total time: 45 min
• Calories: 290 kcal per serving
• Protein: 12 g
• Fat: 6 g
• Carbs: 45 g

Ingredients

• 2 carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 courgette
• 200 g cannellini beans
• 100 g pasta
• 400 g tinned tomatoes
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 rind of vegetarian hard cheese (Parmesan-style)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 handful of parsley

Method

You’ll need: saucepan · chopping board · knife · wooden spoon · ladle

1. Trim the carrots, celery, courgette and onion and cut them into small, even dice.
2. Gently heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and soften the onion, carrots and celery in it. Hold back the courgette for now.
3. Stir in the oregano, then add the tinned tomatoes and vegetable stock. Put the hard cheese rind into the pan as well and bring everything briefly to the boil.
4. Add the cannellini beans, courgette and pasta to the soup. Reduce the heat and let everything simmer gently until the pasta is al dente.
5. Season the soup to taste and take the hard cheese rind back out.
6. Serve with chopped parsley and finish with a little extra hard cheese if you like.

Good to know

A minestrone like this makes the kitchen feel cosy straight away. It's simple, honest and just the thing when you want something warm and uncomplicated.

Swaps

Cannellini beans → chickpeas (also provide fibre and plant protein); pasta → wholewheat pasta (also provides fibre); hard cheese rind → leave it out (then you don't need to check the cheese for animal rennet); courgette → fennel (also provides fibre and a delicate flavour).

Allergens

Contains gluten (pasta), milk (hard cheese) and celery. Good for children if the vegetables are cooked until very soft. In pregnancy, fine as long as you use a pasteurised hard cheese.