Minestrone Soup

"Sometimes you just need a good soup. Like the kind that you can eat for lunch…and then again for dinner! That’s this Minestrone Soup. It’s packed with flavor and it’s super easy to make. This soup makes several appearances in our kitchen during soup season – it’s that good! Similar to chocolate chip cookies, there is no set recipe for Minestrone Soup. There are hundreds (thousands?) of variations on this classic recipe. In general, Minestrone Soup is a thicker soup with a rustic Italian vibe. In fact, one of the things that makes this soup so popular is the fact that it can be made with a variety of vegetables. It’s literally a ‘catch-all’ for whatever you happen to have laying around at the time! This soup is often referred to as a “poor man’s soup,” because it’s a collection of ingredients left over from previous days’ meals. Leftover beans? Toss ’em in! Zucchini? Sure! Carrots and onions? Yup – chop ’em up and put ’em in the pot! This soup actually belongs to a style of cooking known as cucina povera (“poor kitchen”). Recipes in this style often have rustic, rural roots."