My parents have always had a large garden that produces quite a bit, kind-of fitting since both of their parents were involved in farming during the great depression and through out their lives. if you ask my mom’s dad about the great depression he would tell you that he didn’t even notice it because his family and those in his community ate what they grew. It was so awesome as a kid to go out in our garden and just eat food right off the vine, peas where our favorites.
Now that I have a yard big enough to have a garden so we are starting this year with our first square food garden, the soil in our yard is not that good for a garden. We are planning to add more square food gardens every year till we have quite a garden to eat from, hope that plan works out like I am hoping. The idea is to grow more of what we eat instead of relying on the grocery stores for fresh fruits and veggies. We even planted 5 fruit trees last fall that should be producing in 3-4 years.
In the thought of starting our own garden, I wanted to share an awesome minestrone soup recipe that uses vegetables that can mostly be grown in our garden, as we expand it. My in-laws shared this recipe with us. The soup is a bit of work, mostly dicing and chopping, but it is so worth it.
- Olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 large carrot, chopped
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 2-3 small zucchinis, chopped
- 1 yellow squash, chopped
- 1 hand full fresh green beans, chopped
- 2 cups cauliflower, chopped in larger chunks
- Small head of cabbage, chopped
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese (or cheese rind)
- 2 small tomatoes, diced
- 3 cups water
- 2 stalks fresh basil
- 1 can garbanzo beans
- 1½ cups frozen super sweet white corn
- Pre-chop all your vegetables before you start.
- Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a very large stock pot and heat to medium heat.
- Add the following vegetables to the pot one by one stirring about 30 seconds before adding the next vegetable, add a small drizzle of olive oil with each vegetable. Add onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, and cauliflower.
- Cover and let cook for about 7 minutes.
- Add cabbage, salt, parmesan cheese, tomatoes, and water to the pot and stir together.
- Cover and reduce heat to a simmer for 30 minutes.
- Add basil stalks, garbanzo beans, and white corn to pot and stir together.
- Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove basil stalks (and cheese rind if you used one) and remove pot from heat.
- Serve topped with shredded parmesan cheese and a little drizzle of olive oil.
I also thought this recipe would give you a break from the whole grain recipes I have been sharing. I hope you give it a try and enjoy it.
We submitted this recipe to several whole food linkups: Whole Foods Wednesday, Traditional Tuesdays, Real Food Wednesday, Tasty Traditions, Nomday Monday, Delicious Dish Tuesday, Chef’s Day Off, and Eat Make Grow,
All those fresh veggies are calling my name, yes please!
This looks fantastic!! All of those veggies… YUM!
Thank you so much for linking up and sharing with us at Delicious Dish Tuesday! We’re on “Spring Break” this week, but will resume next week and I’ll be featuring your recipe as my favorite! Thanks again for linking up! Hope to see you next week! 🙂
I can’t believe all the veggies you packed into this soup. It sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing it with Delicious Dish Tuesday 🙂