Minestrone Soup

It's winter here in Australia and I just adore cooking creamy pasta dishes, coconutty curries and rich casseroles. But you can have too much of a good thing so when I feel a little too indulged in rich wintery foods, I make this very light and reasonably healthy minestrone soup which is packed with veggies.



Minestrone Soup
(Serves 4)

Olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 celery stick, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 large potato, diced
1 zucchini, diced
80g green beans, cut in half
1L beef stock (use veggie stock if you're vegetarian)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup macaroni
Grated parmesan

- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and add the onion. Gently saute until it begins to look translucent, then add the garlic, celery, carrot, bay leaves and thyme. Cook for 5 minutes then add the potato, zucchini and green beans. Cook for a further 5 minutes.

- Add the stock and tomatoes. Bring the soup to a boil then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occassionally. If the soup looks like it's drying out, add some hot water.

- Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaves, then add the macaroni and cook for 15 minutes, or until the pasta is tender. Season well with salt and pepper then serve the soup in big bowls with the parmesan sprinkled over the top. (And if you're like me, you'll want some crusty, buttery bread on the side to mop up the liquid too!)

Spicy Lentil Soup and Garlic Toast

Yep - it's another lentil recipe. This time I'm dedicating the recipe to the world-wide Meatless Monday movement - an initiative about cutting back meat consumption for the sake of your health, budget, animal welfare, global hunger and environment.

I got this recipe from my Aunty and really enjoyed it. If you're the type of person who has plenty of spices on hand all the time (like me) then this is the perfect, quick, vegetarian meal to make when the pantry is (nearly) bare.



Spicy Lentil Soup
(Serves 4)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 tspn each of ground ginger, ground coriander, ground cumin and paprika
1/2 tspn each of ground pepper, cinnamon and turmeric
1/4 tspn each of nutmeg and chilli powder
120g red lentils
1 tin of diced tomatoes
1.2L vegetable stock
Fresh coriander (optional)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and saute the onion until it has turned translucent. Add all the spices and toast them briefly.

Add the lentils, tomatoes and stock and simmer the soup for about 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.

Season with salt and fresh coriander.

Perhaps you'd like some garlic toast with that?

When I first started dating my partner (what feels like a century ago. In a good way of course!) he fell in love with my garlic toast. It's nothing special, but he likes it and I always make it for him when he needs cheering up. (Men can be such simple creatures sometimes.)



Garlic Toast
(Serves 4)

8 slices of bread
Butter
Garlic powder
Salt
Chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 160C. Butter the bread, sprinkle on the garlic powder, a very small amount of salt and the chopped parsley. Cut each slice of bread into three, pop them on an oven tray and bake for about 10 minutes, until the bread just begins to turn golden.