Vegan Minestrone - The Big Soup

The host Harini of Tongueticklers decided on Soups for this month's Monthly Mingle, started by Meeta. I must say a perfect theme for the cold of December. Right from my growing years, I have been a big fan of different types of soups. And still I cannot imagine even a week without one or two bowls of soup.
Soups can be as simple as possible. Yet they can be as complex as you want them to be, by mixing more or less ingredients. But they have a thing common and that is the great comforting factor along with oodles of warmth.  Packed with goodness and great flavour, Minestrone is one such soup from Italy. Best eaten in fall or winter months, minestrone makes a perfect light and healthy meal for lunch or dinner. Although there is a huge variety of minestrone recipes as many are the minestrone cooks. But almost all minestrone recipes have three basic vegetables to start with - onion, carrot and celery. One important feature of this soup is that vegetables are to be chopped very fine so that each remains its identity and doesn't blend.

The aroma is fabulous. When you will start making it, I can bet that your family members will start peeping into the kitchen to check what's special is going on. You can experiment with the flavors according to the taste of your family and the vegetables available at hand. This is a vegan version. But vegetable broth can be replaced with chicken stock another minestrone will be ready.


Ingredients
1 cup macroni boiled
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
½ cup onion chopped
1 or 2 cup chopped carrots, potato, celery with leaves, cabbage
½ cup garbanzo beans or green beans, or any beans of your choice
1 cup tomato puree
4 cups of vegetable broth or water
2 tbsp herbs (optional)
salt and pepper for taste
grated cheese for garnishing (optional)

Method

* Heat olive oil in a large pan or pot and saute chopped onions.
* When golden brown, add ginger garlic pastes followed by chopped carrots, celery, cabbage and salt accordint to taste.
* Saute the mixture till all the vegetables are tender.
* Add herbs, beans and tomato puree.
* Pour in the vegetable stock and macaroni after five minutes.
* Sprinkle black pepper powder according to your taste.
* Cover and cook for about half an hour .
* Season with grated cheese and serve hot in bowls.

14 comments:

Unknown on December 13, 2009 at 10:16 AM said...

Its our all time fav. soup,loaded with vitamins & protein.

Priya Suresh on December 13, 2009 at 12:49 PM said...

Wow such a gorgeous bowl of soup, looks tremendous..feel like finishing that whole bowl..

Unknown on December 13, 2009 at 10:58 PM said...

Comforting and soothing soup. Perfect during this chilly weather.

Chibog in Chief on December 14, 2009 at 2:33 AM said...

This is definitely one of my favorite soup! What a great entry for this month's Monthly Mingle :-)

ps, thanks for your beautiful comment! I am glad too to discover your blog ! If only we could spend the rest of our day blogging and hopping around to check out all those good finds on the net..whew, so little time we have :-)

MaryMoh on December 14, 2009 at 2:34 AM said...

That looks delicious. Beautiful picture, too. I love minestrone soup. It's such a healthy soup, so lovely with crusty bread. Thanks for sharing.

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover on December 14, 2009 at 5:09 AM said...

Thanks for dropping by my blog, This look delicious and yummy.

Home Cooked Oriya Food on December 14, 2009 at 7:17 AM said...

I love this soup too... Your picture is perfect and your site looks great!

chow and chatter on December 14, 2009 at 8:12 AM said...

oh what a wonderful soup, great to cooler months

Rebecca

Namitha on December 14, 2009 at 10:57 AM said...

Perfect for this weather...Thanks for sharing this ,to add to my soup recipe collection :-)

Sarah Naveen on December 14, 2009 at 3:12 PM said...

what a beautiful click...Looks so yummy..

Anonymous said...

My husband asked me to make him a big pot of vegetable soup and your recipe is going to make him very happy so I thank you.

Maria on December 15, 2009 at 7:59 AM said...

This is my kind of soup! Yum!

Lavanya Siva on December 17, 2009 at 3:18 PM said...

wow, perfect for the weather, please pass me a bowl

Sunshinemom on December 24, 2009 at 5:59 AM said...

I am glad you wrote in again! This is one amongst my favourite soups and I appreciate that you made a vegan version for the mingle. Just so sorry that your mail went to my spam folder!

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