Nothing feels more like home than homemade soup, whether it's vegetable soup or a beloved classic like minestrone. Most minestrone soups, though, are made with meat bases, taking them off the menu for vegetarians and vegans. No more, though. This recipe is classic minestrone without the meat.
This soup is great as the first course of a meal, but it does well as a meal by itself too, especially when it's served with a salad and vegan garlic bread (recipe also below). So pull up to the table and enjoy this robust, savory soup.
Vegan Minestrone Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 16-ounce bag navy beans
- 10 cups water
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 potato, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- Optional vegetables: ½ cup green beans, 1 small zucchini diced, 1 cup coarsely chopped cabbage
- 2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 ½ tsp. parsley
- 1 tsp. sweet basil
- ½ tsp. thyme
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. pepper
- vegan pasta (see recipe below)
Directions:
- Rinse and sort beans (navy beans seem to have more foreign material with them than other beans, so sort carefully!). In a pot, add beans and 8 cups of water. According to package directions, beans can either be soaked overnight and then simmered for two hours the following day; or boiled for two minutes, then allowed to soak for one to two hours, and then simmered for two hours afterward; or slow-cooked in a crockpot for several hours. Add remaining two cups of water, then continue to simmer the beans until tender. Add vegetable broth.
- Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion and garlic, stirring constantly, until golden, then add potatoes, carrots, and celery and saute for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add vegetables to pot of beans.
- Add tomatoes (and any optional vegetables desired) and spices. Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour, until carrots and potatoes are soft. In the meantime, make vegan pasta. Add to pot and simmer another 5 to 7 minutes.
Vegan Pasta
To be used in Vegan Minestrone Soup.
Ingredients:
- 1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- ½ cup water
Directions:
- Mix together flour and salt.
- Add water and mix thoroughly. Add a little more flour if too sticky. Knead for 2 minutes.
- Divide into three balls. Roll out one ball lengthwise.
- With a knife, cut out sections that look like spaghetti or fettucine.
- Once the entire length of pasta has been cut, make perpendicular cuts to the long shapes, so that all pieces of pasta are small, almost rice-size (think orzo), but little squares are okay too.
- Repeat with remaining two balls.
- If using a pasta maker, roll the pasta out into spaghetti, linguine, or fettucine shapes, then score along the width as in #5 above.
- Add to minestrone soup as directed.
Vegan Garlic Bread
Ingredients:
- 6 slices whole wheat bread (read label to be sure it's vegan)
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, coarsely minced
- ¼ tsp. garlic salt
- ¼ tsp Italian seasoning
Directions:
- Lightly toast bread.
- In small bowl, combine olive oil, garlic, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning. Mix well.
- With a pastry brush, spread olive oil mixture evenly over slices of bread.
- Place bread on baking sheet.
- Place bread under oven broiler or in toaster oven. Broil/toast long enough for olive oil to bubble and edges of bread to brown. Remove and cut each slice diagonally.
A Vegan Italian Meal
There's nothing like Italian to make a kitchen inviting, and this meal is simple yet satisfying. Soup, salad, and garlic bread will make guests and family feel loved and full. Meal serves 6 to 8, depending upon appetite!
Cynthia Jones-Shoeman - Cynthia (“Cindy”) Jones-Shoeman earned her MA in English from Colorado State University in 2007; her thesis was "Toni ...
