Minestrone soup

• 2 tbspolive oil
• 1onion · diced
• 2carrots · diced
• 2 stalkscelery · diced
• 4 clovesgarlic · minced
• 2 tbsptomato paste
• 1 candiced tomatoes · 14 oz
• 1 cancannellini beans · 15 oz, drained
• 6 cupsvegetable broth · low-sodium
• 1 pieceparmesan rind · optional but recommended
• 2 cupskale or spinach · chopped
• 3/4 cupsmall pasta · cooked separately
• 1 tspdried oregano

Methode

1. 1

   Build a soffritto base first

   Sweat the onion, carrot and celery slowly in olive oil until soft and sweet before anything else goes in. This Italian aromatic base, the soffritto, is the foundation of the soup flavour. Rushing it with high heat gives you raw crunch and a thinner-tasting broth.

2. 2

   The parmesan rind is the secret weapon

   Drop a parmesan rind into the simmering broth. As it softens it releases savoury, salty depth that makes a vegetable soup taste like it has been cooking all day. Save your rinds in the freezer for exactly this. Fish it out before serving.

3. 3

   Fry the tomato paste before the liquid

   Cook the tomato paste with the soffritto and garlic for a minute or two until it darkens. This removes the raw edge and concentrates the tomato flavour that runs through the whole pot.

4. 4

   Cook the pasta separately

   Boil the pasta on the side and add it to each bowl, not the pot. Pasta left in the soup keeps drinking the broth and turns to mush by the second day, and you lose your liquid. Kept separate, leftovers stay good all week.

5. 5

   Beans add body, protein and fibre

   Cannellini beans push the fibre to eleven grams a bowl and make the soup filling enough to be a meal. Mash a few against the side of the pot to thicken the broth naturally without cream or flour.

6. 6

   Greens in at the end

   Stir kale in for the last five minutes, or spinach for the last one, so they keep colour and structure rather than cooking to a grey sludge. Finish with a drizzle of good olive oil and grated parmesan at the table.