HOW TO MAKE Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup, is a thick Italian Soup which is made with vegetable stock, tomatoes, onion, celery, carrots and other vegetables with an addition of some pasta and beans. If you wish to have a wholesome meal at nights, you can very well go for this soup. It fills the stomach and the soup contains everything needed for an one time meal. Happy to mention that some leftover soup was totally enjoyed by my daughter and she requested me to make this often.!!!

Ingredients

Tomato - 3 Big or 32 Oz Tomato Puree Can

Carrot -- 1 Medium

Potato - 1 Medium

Butternut Squash - 1 Cup cubed
Zucchini - 1 Medium

Green Pepper / Capsicum - 1/2 Medium

Celery Sticks - 2

Green Peas - 1 handful

White Onion - 1/2 Medium

Cooked Pasta - 1 Cup ( preferably mini size pasta )

Coriander Leaves or  Parsley  - 2 tbsp

Crushed Garlic - 2 tbsp

White beans / Red Beans cooked - 1/2 cup

Beans - 7 to 8 Medium

Vegetable Stock - 4 to 5 cups

Salt - To Taste

Dried Oregano Seasoning - 1 tsp
Dried Thyme Seasoning - 1 tsp
Dried Basil Seasoning - 1 tsp

Black Pepper Powder - As required

Olive oil - 1 tbsp

Parmesan Romano Cheese - To Garnish on its top before serving

Method

• Wash and cut all the vegetables into tiny cubes. Keep them ready.
• In a thick bottomed soup pot or vessel, add the Olive Oil first. When its heated, add the crushed garlic and onion and fry them till golden brown. Then, add the other vegetables and fry them for 2-3 minutes. Cover the lid for a while tilll the tomatoes get mashy and cooked. Cook all the vegetables for another 3-4 minutes on a low flame.
• Add the vegetable stock now and if required, add some water into the pot and cook everything on a medium flame till the vegetables get cooked completely.
• Finally add the italian seasoning powder, required amount of salt, black pepper powder into it and allow them to get blended well for few more minutes.
• Garnish with parmesan cheese and shredded coriander leaves or Parsley ( of your choice ) and serve in a soup bowl. Serve with a side of toasted garlic bread.

Tips / Variations

You can add any seasonal vegetables of your choice while making this soup. I have not added few due to unavailability. In addition to Italian seasoning powder, we can add crushed basil leaves to make it more flavourful.

HOW TO MAKE Paneer Veggie Roti RECIPE

Paneer Veggie Roti

Wanted to give chappathi / Roti to my son with good protein and vegetables. Same way, we wanted to have spicy Capsicum Paneer Fry ( which he cannot have at his age), I decided to make his chappathi loaded with paneer and veggies instead.  So I transformed the normal chappathi / Roti by mixing few cubes of fresh paneer, grated carrots, peas, little omum powder, jeera powder. We were so satisfied that he also had some good healthy meal along with us. Because of  fresh paneer, the rotis came out softly and it was colourful with different veggies too.

Ingredients

Chappathi / Roti Dough - Tennis Ball Size

Grated Carrots - 1/4 cup

Frozen Peas ( cooked )- 1 Handful

Fresh Paneer Cubes - 2 Cubes medium size

Jeera Powder - 1 pinch

Omum / Ajwain powder - 1 pinch

Ghee - For frying the chappathi / Roti

Method

1. Take the chappathi dough which you prepare for making regular chappathis / Rotis.
2. To that, add grated carrots, cooked peas, fresh paneer cubes, jeera powder, Omum powder and crush everything and mix it thoroughly with the dough.
3. Make a small chappathi / Roti into a round shape and fry it on medium flame both sides with little ghee.
4. Serve it with fresh curd. Healthy evening snack or morning breakfast for the kids who refuse to eat veggies separately sometime.

Tips

Avoid mashed potatos in this dough as it does not go well with paneer and makes it too heavy.