Minestrone Soup

This is a great hearty dish that warms the spot on a cool fall day. I'm sure you all can appreciate the challenge in making healthy, vegetable hearty meals when feeding multiple family members with different taste levels and different levels of commitment to healthy eating. This is a great soup that you can edit for you or your families taste level. You can add turkey Brautwarst or turkey bacon for your meat lovers, noodles for the kids in the house, or keep it vegan or low carb.

Make sure when you make this soup you make the full batch. It's an easy left over meal. You can eat it the next day or freeze it and thaw for a quick mid-week meal. Another option is to put all the ingredients in a crock pot and allow it to cook all day. Come home to the smell of a fresh home cooked meal.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 stalks celery, sliced
3 carrots, sliced
2 large handfuls of green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 zucchini quartered and sliced
1 rounded teaspoon dried oregano
1 rounded teaspoon dried basil
3/4 teaspoon sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 28-ounce can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 14-ounce can fire roasted crushed tomatoes
6 cups organic MSG free chicken broth
1 15-ounce mixed beans, drained and rinsed (choose from kidney, black, cannellini, pinto, and red)
1 cup spiral rice pasta
2 Bratwurst or other sausage or can use Turkey Bacon.
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add the vegetables and cook until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in oregano and basil, sea salt, and pepper to taste; cook 3 more minutes.

Add the diced and crushed tomatoes and the chicken broth to the pot and bring to a boil. Add chopped sausage and allow to simmer on a low boil or high simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in beans and rice pasta and cook until the pasta and vegetables are tender and the sausage is fully cooked, about 10 minutes more. Ladle into bowls and top with chopped basil.

Serve with Gluten Free Garlic Toast and top with Dairy Free Pesto