Today is Christmas and again, I’m enjoying my peaceful evening alone in my apartment, it’s only different from last year that I don’t have to work outside this year in the cold weather. But still, nobody is at home, so I decided to cook something properly for myself at least to enjoy Christmas and I don’t really want to go out since I’m not into the crowd and people might make me feel jealous xDD. However, as long as I got my food, I think I will be fine and I can talk to my boyfriend and friends through skype and facebook (unfortunately my boyfriend passed out already since yesterday he got no sleep due to his big project’s deadline). Anyway, the following ingredients are what you need for this simple vegan minestrone soup. 🙂
_1 medium size carrot – chopped or cut it in flower shape
_1 onion – chopped (or cut in any size as you want)
_garlic – chopped
_broccoli – cut into pieces
_any kind of cabbage you like (because I want to make it simple and make use of my ingredients, but I use the other cabbage, not the one in the previous picture xDD )
_a branch of celery – chopped
_pasta or macaroni (basically you can use any kind of pasta you like, but I use whole wheat fusilli)
_kidney bean (or any kind of bean you like) let it soaked over night and slow cook until it’s soft because if you put them directly in the soup it will take really long to be soft
_leek – chopped (I don’t have leek so I use green onion instead)
_1 tbsp of tomato paste
_5 tbsp of tomato sauce ( or you can use a can of tomato or tomato sauce, anything will work)
_oregano
_caraway (optional – I like the smell of them so)
_olive oil (or any kind of oil you like)
_salt and pepper to taste
_vegetable broth (or water)
So these are the steps of how to make this simple soup 🙂
1. Pour olive oil in your pot, wait until the oil is hot then put the garlic first (I like to fry the garlic first to bring up the smell)
2. After that, add the onion and celery into the pot, green onion (or chopped leek), and then a pinch of caraway.
3. When the onion is soft, add the carrot into the pot, stir well and then add a pinch of dried oregano (I like it to be a bit spicy so I put some hot paprika powder, but it’s up to you 🙂 )
4. Add the tomato paste, stir well.
5. Pour water or vegetable broth into the pot to cover the vegetable, bring it to boil with medium heat, season with salt to fit your taste.
6. When the soup is boiled, add the cabbage and stir well.
7. Add the broccoli (I add it later because if I add it too early, it will be too soft), stir well.
This is what you have when you finish all those steps above. Season the soup again before adding the fusilli.
Finally, add the fusilli into the pot, you can measure for example, 50gr of fusilli is for one person. The soup can serve at least 2 persons. (But it depends on how much you can eat also). Stir well and simmer the soup with low medium heat for around 13 mins or until when the fusilli is soft then it is ready to serve.
This is what you will have, you can eat the soup with bread.
Merry Christmas everyone, may joy and happiness be with you! 🙂 Also sorry for the quality of the picture, I bought a new camera but unluckily it got wet so I had to took it to the customer service, which means I have to struggle with my phone camera again! 😦