Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup

For a period of time, when I was a toddler, I would only eat Progresso Minestrone soup.

My mom would feed it to me and tell me the name of each bean and vegetable on the spoon.

It's still a family joke every time we eat minestrone soup.

Unfortunately, a few years ago, Progresso Soup changed their soup recipe.

The broth is way too thick and garlicky.

It's NOT the same soup, so now my souping mission is to find the perfect minestrone soup.

~

This is my latest effort.

First I started with several pounds of red tomatoes from my garden.

I cored them and then blended them up in the food processor, skin, seeds and all.

Then I cooked them down for about 10 hours until they were thick and saucy.

I used 6 cups of this tomato broth.

The rest of the tomato broth was used in Chocolate Black Beans.


Then saute 2 cups chopped onions (about 2 med)
in 2 Tbs of olive oil, until the onion is soft and slightly golden.
Turn off heat, to prevent the garlic from becoming bitter, and add 3 finely minced garlic cloves.



Roughly chopped 2 cups greens beans
and 3 cups roughly chopped carrots.

Add 2 cups chopped swiss chard or other green (kale, beet greens or cabbage) to the onions and garlic in the pan.

Plus 1 cup chopped celery.

1 can of butter beans.

Add 2 cups roughly chopped summer squash.

To the vegetables add 6 cups tomato broth.

You will need to add more broth to make it soupy.

This is what I do, but feel free to use canned broth -

I take 8 cups of water, boil it and add 1 or 2 bouillon cubes or 1 Tbs. Better Than Bouillon

Then I add the broth to the soup.

Now to season and can:

To season add (to taste) salt, pepper, fresh or dry basil, oregano, thyme, savory and a bay leaf.

Simmer for 10 to 15 mins.

Add more broth if needed.

Ladle hot soup into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace.

Remove air bubbles.

Adjust 2 piece caps.

Process pints 55 mins and

quarts 1 hour and 25 mins, at 10 pounds pressure in a steam-pressure canner.