Minestrone Soup - 300ish calories a serving

Umeboshi
Umeboshi Posts: 1,637 Member
edited October 2 in Recipes
Was looking for a Carrabba's minestrone copycat recipe and followed it with a bit of improvisation. It turned out GREAT so I thought I'd share it with you guys! (Though it's not exactly like Carrabba's) :D Aaaand it's got like a million veggies so it's extra healthy!

Makes 6 'servings' though I'll admit I didn't measure mine out to figure out how many cups is in a serving. I'm guessing 1.5?

Ingredients:

-1 container of Swanson Chicken Stock (33% Less Sodium)
- 1/4 cup diced ham
- 2 slices Oscar Mayer turkey bacon, chopped up
- 3 yukon gold potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces
- 1/2 cup frozen 'italian cut' green beans.
- approx 1 1/2 cups of diced butternut squash, chopped into bite size pieces
- 1 zucchini,chopped into bite size pieces
- 3 roma tomatoes
- 1 or 2 carrots, finely diced ( I used a bunch of baby carrots because that's what I had in the fridge :D)
- 2 stalks of celery, finely diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 small head of cabbage, chopped into bite size pieces
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
- 1 can white beans/kidney beans
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper to taste

In a BIG soup pot, start by cooking up the bacon pieces until they get slightly crispy. Then add the olive oil, carrots, celery, and garlic and cook on medium until they get (at least somewhat)soft and aromatic(At this step you can also add finely diced onions, but I didn't because I have a picky eater). Add in the zucchini, squash, green beans, cabbage, tomatoes, and ham, and continue cooking until all of the vegetables are slightly tender. Then add in the chicken stock, bay leaf, and potatoes. Once the potatoes are slightly tender but not completely done, add the canned garbanzo and kidney beans including their liquid, and continue simmering on medium until the potatoes are completely cooked. Sprinkle some grated parmesan cheese on top of your soup if you don't mind the extra few calories. :D

Note: Be careful because if you cook the zucchini and squash too long before adding the potatoes they will dissolve into the broth by the end, which makes it nice and thick but then you miss out on the chunks.

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