I love rainy summer nights! In Florida, there is nothing better than a BIG storm to cool everyone down. Even in the summertime, the sound of rain echoing on the rooftop makes me crave a big, warm bowl of soup.
Ridiculously Easy Homemade Minestrone
I call this soup ridiculously easy because I use a pre-made organic tomato soup as the base. I’ve also make a very similar soup using chicken broth (check to make sure there is no MSG or trans fat!) and sweet potatoes, which turns the liquid a little sweet and just tastes DIVINE!
If you roast the vegetables—as you would in this recipe—as opposed to boiling them, a soup will taste smokey instead of salty. Plus, it will be chewy as opposed to mushy!
We had half a carton of Pacific Natural Foods Organic Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato leftover from earlier in the week, so I used that as my base. The soup sure had some kick to it!
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup broccoli, chopped
- 1 large carrot, chopped
- 1/8 cup small white onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup baby bella mushrooms, chopped
- ¼ cup kale, chopped
- 1/4 cup WW pasta, macaroni or similar shape (I used Barilla Plus)
- ¼ cup red kidney beans
- 2 cups tomato soup (Check the nutritional label! Soups are tricky!)
- Pepper to taste
Preparation
- Mix the first 4 ingredients together in a casserole dish and roast at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until carrots are soft.
- At the same time, bring water to boil on the stove top and cook the pasta according to directions. When there are 10 minutes left for the pasta, add the chopped kale.
- Drain the pasta and kale mix.
- Add 2 cups of tomato soup to the pot. Let simmer on LOW while veggies bake.
- When veggies are done roasting, add to soup mixture. Add in kidney beans.
- Let simmer on LOW for an additional 5 – 10 minutes or until hot.
- Enjoy! (Told you it was ridiculously easy!)
I only had the soup for dinner, but it was hearty and delicious. Plus, I wasn’t really that hungry. Since we had such a late dinner (9 PM), I needed a snack at my “normal†dinner hour. I had a handful of nuts and raisins around 6 PM. An hour later, I also had a small (3 inch) portion of French bread with peanut butter.
As you can tell by the picture, I was still writing at 7 PM! Future Husband, his parents, and I are launching a small business, and I was preparing the website text. I’ll tell you guys all about it when it goes live!
Well, we’re off to watch the Opening Ceremony on TiVo! Tomorrow’s agenda calls for cardio and weight lifting at the gym with Future Husband. See you for breakfast… Have a wonderful evening everyone.