A delicious, light meal or snack for a cold or rainy day! Minestra means soup in Italian, and minestrone is a thick, vegetable soup. This is a high dietary fiber recipe due to all the vegetables, beans and small amount of whole grain. The carbohydrates derive mostly from the vegetables and beans. You may wish to add more protein by adding some chopped, cooked chicken or tofu.
Ingredients
Celery
- 3 stalks
Carrots
- 3 large
Onion
- 1 small
Oil
- 2 Tablespoons canola, avocado, peanut, sesame or light olive oil
Zucchini
- 1 medium
Diced_tomatoes
- 1 (14.5-oz) can
Beans
- 1 (15.5-oz) can kidney beans or other beans of choice
Pearled_barley
- ¼ cup (sub quinoa)
Salt
- ½ teaspoon
Pepper
- ½ teaspoon
Seasoning
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning (or dried herbs of choice)
Broth
- 4 cups (1 liter) chicken or vegetable broth
Instructions
Step 1
Finely chop the celery, carrots,onion, and zuchini and add to a stockpot.
Step 2
Add 2 Tablespoons oil to the stock pot with the chopped celery, carrots and onion, and turn the heat to medium-high. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes (or until soft).
Step 3
While the vegetables are cooking, rinse the kidney beans using a colander.
Step 4
Once the vegetables have cooked for 10 minutes, add the white kidney beans, barley, diced tomatoes, italian seasoning, and broth to the stockpot and cover with a lid. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat to low.
Step 5
Let cook for 20 minutes.
Notes
Sodium content for this recipe is based on no-salt-added broth and low sodium, canned beans. To reduce the salt content, omit the 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the recipe.