Marvelous Minestrone

One of the wonderful perks of being involved with “The Biggest Winner” program in the Fall of 2010 was that we participants received weekly recipes via email. These were fabulous clean-eating recipes that, for the most part, required just rudimentary knowledge of the kitchen. Lifted from Clean Eating magazine, this recipe continues to be one of my favorites. Incredibly versatile, I’ve used this soup pot as the perfect landing place for those less than savory veggies left in the produce drawer of the fridge. It’s also through this formula that I learned about that wonderful, protein-packed pseudo-grain, quinoa. I put this soup together just about every other week. Made on either the stove top, or in the slow cooker, it sits well in the fridge and is the perfect after yoga meal.

For the first few months, I used canned tomatoes and cannelloni beans when making this soup. Recently, however, I’ve learned to take the time to start with fresh veggies and dry beans- the result, both taste and health wise, is well worth the effort.

[See a report on recent research at:  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/bpa-lurks-in-canned-soups-and-drinks]

Ingredients

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 medium carrots, diced (approx 1 cup)

1 cup fennel

6 cups low sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth if making a vegetarian option)

1 cup red onion diced

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 bay leaves

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped

¼ tsp fennel seeds, crushed

1 ½ cups cooked cannelloni beans (white kidney beans), rinsed and drained

2 cups fresh plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

1/3 cup uncooked quinoa

kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

1 cup fresh spinach, cut chiffonade

tbsp basil, thinly sliced

2 oz. Parmigianino Reggiano, finely grated (about ½ cup), optional

Directions

§         In a large heavy bottomed pot, heat oil over medium heat.

§         Add carrots, fennel, onion, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and fennel seeds, and cook, stirring often, until vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes.

(If using a slow cooker, a large skillet can be used for these first two steps. Vegetables should be transferred to the cooker when tender.)

§         Add 6 cups low sodium chicken (or vegetable) broth, beans, tomatoes and quinoa.

§         Heat to boiling then reduce heat to low and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 20 minutes.

§         Remove bay leaves and season with salt and pepper.