How to make delicious Italian vegetable minestrone soup? TOP 4 step-by-step recipes with photos of cooking at home. Secrets of cooking. Video recipes.
Light, thick and rich minestrone soup is one of the famous and popular Italian dishes. The main component is seasonal vegetables, and in large quantities. They are boiled until tender, and then, if desired, they are crushed with a blender to a puree-like consistency or left in pieces. Therefore, the taste and appearance of the chowder depends on the products from which it is prepared. Today, the requirements for this type of soup are not so strict and you can cook minestrone at home at any time of the year from vegetables that are at hand.
Minestrone soup - cooking secrets
- The dignity of minestrone is that it is prepared from the products that the hostess has in the kitchen, depending on the season and availability.
- In the cold season, cabbage, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans are added to the soup.
- In summer, zucchini, zucchini, eggplants, bell peppers, tomatoes, green peas are placed in the minestrone.
- Out of season, pumpkin, onions, garlic, carrots and celery can be used all year round.
- It is not recommended to use Brussels sprouts and arugula; they will overpower the taste of other vegetables.
- Greens often include spinach, parsley, rosemary, basil, and thyme.
- They will make the soup rich: potatoes, beans, chickpeas, lentils, pasta, rice and even barley.
- If using legumes, boil them ahead of time and add them to the soup 10 minutes before the end of cooking.
- Canned beans can be used.
- The soup can be boiled in plain water, it will absorb the taste and aroma of fried vegetables, and the vegetable broth will become rich.
- Also, the soup is boiled in meat or chicken broth.
- Italians themselves love broth made from pork ham on the bone (pancetta) or fried bacon.
- For piquancy and sophistication of taste, a little dry wine is sometimes added to the broth.
- Some housewives prefer to cook the soup with chicken or other meat broth.
- A fragrant minestrone will turn out if the vegetables are pre-fried in olive oil. At the same time, they should be fried slowly, almost languishing.
- Minestrone becomes richer and tastier after a few hours. Therefore, it is recommended to insist it for several hours.
- In Italy, soup, poured into bowls, is sprinkled with olive oil, sprinkled with grated parmesan and basil leaves. Sometimes a little pesto sauce is added.
- Diced vegetables are dipped in boiling water and cooked until tender, without a lid. The water should be 5 cm higher than the vegetables.
- Half of the cooked vegetables can be chopped in a blender.
Classic minestrone
Prepare the classic Italian minestrone soup for your beloved family. If you don't have fresh vegetables on hand, you can easily replace them with frozen vegetable mixes.
See also how to make Italian minestrone soup with meatballs.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 68 kcal.
- Servings - 8
- Cooking time - 3 hours
Ingredients:
- Beans - 150 g
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Potatoes - 1 kg
- Onion - 1 head
- Pumpkin - 200 g
- Celery stalk - 1 pc.
- Zucchini - 2 pcs.
- Bacon - 150 g
- Leeks - 1 stalk
- Pork leg - 1 pc.
- Garlic - 2 cloves
- Black peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves - 2 pcs.
- Thyme, parsley, rosemary, spinach - on a bunch
- Parmesan cheese - to taste
- Salt, ground black pepper - to taste
Preparation of the classic minestrone:
- Soak the beans in water for 6 hours. Then rinse, cover with fresh water, boil, add cloves with black peppercorns and cook for a total of 2 hours.
- Fry the bacon, cut into small cubes, in a preheated skillet. Add chopped onions, leeks and celery. Saute vegetables until soft, season with crushed garlic, and place in a pot with beans.
- Peel the pumpkin, carrots and potatoes, cut into medium cubes and add to the pot with beans.
- Add chopped zucchini last to all vegetables.
- Put bay leaves, thyme sprigs in a saucepan and cook until tender, which is determined by the softness of vegetables and beans. They should be boiled.
- A few minutes before the end of cooking, toss chopped spinach and parsley into the soup. Season with salt and pepper.
- Before serving, the finished minestrone can be mashed using a blender.
- Pour it into bowls and add grated Parmesan cheese to each serving.
Minestrone in Genoese
An interesting Italian minestrone recipe with an exquisite taste, which is brewed by the indigenous inhabitants of the city of Genoa, the capital of Liguria, will certainly please everyone.
Ingredients:
- Potatoes - 3 pcs.
- Pumpkin - 50 g
- Zucchini - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Onion - 1 pc.
- Green beans - 100 g
- Savoy cabbage - 100 g
- Celery - 3-4 stalks
- Leeks - 1 pc.
- Tomato paste - 2 tablespoons
- Olive oil - for frying
- Garlic - 1 clove
- Rosemary - a few twigs
- Fennel - 1 pc.
- Spinach - 1 tablespoon
- Water - 1.5-2 l
- Parmesan cheese - to taste
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
Cooking genoese minestrone:
- Fry finely chopped garlic, diced carrots and onion in a heavy-bottomed saucepan in olive oil. Add some fresh rosemary greens for flavor.
- Cover vegetables with water, add green beans, diced potatoes, pumpkin, zucchini, savoy cabbage and fennel.
- Combine vegetables with finely chopped celery stalks and leeks.
- Add tomato paste to the products, salt, pepper and cook until tender.
- Pour the finished Genoese minestrone into bowls and add chopped spinach, grated Parmesan and drizzle with olive oil.
Minestrone with chicken
Minestrone with chicken, not very popular in Italy, but very much in demand in modern European cuisine. Children especially love it, so make a little gourmet chowder.
Ingredients:
- Chicken breast - 1 pc.
- Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Carnation - 2 buds
- Allspice peas - 2 pcs.
- Water - 2 l
- Zucchini - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Celery - 2 pcs.
- Cauliflower - 0.5 heads of cabbage
- Broccoli - 0.5 heads of cabbage
- Butter - 1 tablespoon
- Olive oil - 1 tablespoon
- Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
- Green peas - 100 g
- Tomato paste - 150 g
- Greens - a bunch
Cooking minestrone with chicken:
- Cut the chicken breasts into medium-sized pieces, place in a saucepan, add bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns and boil the broth in 2 liters of water. After boiling, let it simmer for 40 minutes.
- Chop the squash, peeled carrots, onion and celery into cubes.
- Disassemble the cauliflower and broccoli into florets.
- Fry the onions in a skillet in butter and olive oil. After 2 minutes add the celery with carrots, and after another 3 minutes add the zucchini.
- After 5 minutes, add the vegetables to the broth and cook for 15 minutes.
- Pour the tomatoes over with boiling water, remove the peel from the fruit, chop finely and send to the soup.
- Then add cauliflower, broccoli, green peas (fresh or frozen) and tomato paste.
- Cook minestrone with chicken for 7 minutes and season with chopped herbs.
Tomato minestrone with minced meat
Vegetable tomato soup with minced meat is a traditional recipe for the inhabitants of the Italian region of Bolzano. The chowder turns out to be unusually satisfying, appetizing and tasty.
Ingredients:
- Ground beef - 100 g
- Olive oil - 1 tablespoon
- Onion - 1 pc.
- Garlic - 2 wedges
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Celery root - 0.5 pcs.
- Tomato paste - 2 tbsp l.
- Meat broth - 2 l
- Dry white wine - 1 tbsp.
- Curly pasta - 200 g
- Basil - a few twigs
- Parmesan - 50 g
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
Cooking tomato minestrone with minced meat:
- Fry the ground beef in a skillet in olive oil for 5 minutes.
- Add finely chopped onion and garlic to the minced meat.
- After 5 minutes, add the diced carrots and celery root.
- After 2 minutes add tomato paste.
- Transfer the food to a saucepan, cover with meat broth and wine and cook for 15 minutes.
- Then add the pasta to the pot and continue to cook until tender.
- Pour tomato minestrone with minced meat into bowls, garnish with chopped basil and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.
