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Spring Green Minestrone

A light, bright and hearty way to enjoy Spring's early vegetables. This easy to whip up Minestrone is ready in minutes, chopping the vegetables is what takes the longest!
Course Main Course
Cuisine North American
Keyword green vegetables, pesto, soup, tortellini
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 medium leeks, cleaned and chopped into half moons, can substitute 1 medium diced onion
  • 4 minced medium garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 6 cups good vegetable or chicken stock
  • 6 cups cleaned chopped green vegetables: zucchini, asparagus, sweet peas, kale, spinach, broccoli, etc (see Blog Post for more options)
  • 1 14 ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1/4 cup minced parsley, basil, or dill
  • 8-9 oz package of fresh stuffed pasta like tortellini OR
  • 8 oz dried small shaped pasta
  • 1/2 lemon juiced and zested
  • Kosher salt, to taste
  • freshly cracked Black pepper, to taste
  • 1/3 cup pesto see Notes
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint, optional
  • Grated Cheese to sprinkle on top: Parmesan, Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano will all work great.

Instructions

Instructions

  1. *Have all the vegetables cleaned, chopped and ready to go.
  2. *Have a pot of salted water brought to a boil and boil the dried pasta if using. Drain, and keep in a strainer till needed.
  3. *If using fresh tortellini, depending on your package directions, they may only need 5 minutes to cook through. Start them about the same time the vegetables below are added to the stock.
  4. Heat a large pot over medium high heat and add the olive oil. Add the leeks and cook till softened, about 5 minutes.

  5. Add the garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, and sauté for two minutes. If you are using chopped celery or fennel, add it here with the garlic.

  6. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium.

  7. Add in the thicker vegetables, like broccoli, beans, zucchini and the drained canned beans. Cook for 3 minutes. Add lighter vegetables like asparagus, peas, spinach and kale and white beans if you are using. Cook for 2 minutes to just soften the vegetables.

  8. Turn off the heat and stir in parsley or dill and lemon juice. Taste and re-season with salt and pepper as needed.

To serve:

  1. Divide the pasta evenly between 6 bowls. Pour the soup over the pasta. Finish each bowl with 1 tablespoon of your favourite pesto, and a wedge of lemon and fresh chopped mint if desired.
  2. Sprinkle a generous amount of grated Parmesan, Grana Padano or Peccorino over the soup, and serve.

  3. See blog post for more details.

Recipe Notes

Any leftovers of the soup can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge overnight. If there is leftover pasta, store it in a separate container, or else it will thicken in the broth overnight and turn mushy. When ready to re-heat the soup, you can add the pasta to the soup at that point.

Here is my go-to basic Pesto recipe that you can customize with your favourite herbs and nuts. Make up a batch in advance and use it in all sorts of recipes, even just blending it with labneh to create a fabulous dip for crudités.