Feed the Mommy——Minestrone

After eating almost entire week of chickpea sandwich, I've finally cleared up the entire tub! But there are still lettuce left in the fridge, amazingly. The lettuce didn't seem to deplete much even though I've been feeling I'm eating them like a goat.

This week I have a better planning of my groceries, and today, is minestrone day! It's been a while since I cooked this.

Simply delicious minestrone!

While my son was sleeping this morning I quickly cut all the ingredients that I need for minestrone, while waiting for the rest to come from my Redmart delivery (I'll blog more about this in later post).

After he got up, we do all the routine of playing, feeding, cleaning, bathing. Then, I proceed to my cooking, which will be my meal for lunch and dinner for today, and probably tomorrow's lunch too!

Ingredients:

1. 3 cloves of garlic
2. Half onion
3. 1 large potato
4. 1 large carrot
5. 1 stalk of leek
6. 3 slices of bacon
7. 1 can of diced tomato
8. A few cubes of frozen spinach
9. Approximately 400ml of chicken broth
10. Herbs i.e. sage leaves, dried coriander, Italian parsley
11. Pepper
12. Parmesan cheese

Method: (Prep time: 10-15 mins, Cooking time: 30 mins)

1. Finely chop onion and garlic.
2. Dice potato, carrot, leek and bacon.
3. Heat the pan, fry bacon in oil or butter (I prefer butter, always butter!) until golden brown.
4. Add garlic, onion and sage leaves (bay leaves are good too!) into the pan, sauteed until they smell so good.
5. Add leek, potato, carrot and tomato. Lightly fry them. 
6. Add chicken broth and add the same amount of water.
7. Boil.
8. Add frozen spinach and the other herbs. Add pepper to season too.
9. Let the soup simmer for 30 minutes. 
10. Check if the potato and carrots are nice and soft, if not boil until they are.
11. Serve the soup into a bowl, grate Parmesan cheese on top of the soup.

For alternative, you can add chickpea, white kidney beans, cabbage, zucchini, cucumber, peas etc into the soup. That's how great minestrone is, just add whatever you like!

You could eat this with pasta, but today I prefer bread. It'll be nice if it's toasted but I have got no time and no toaster. Can't wait for the bread to toast on pan.

This soup is dangerously delicious and appetizing! Don't reach for second bowl if you're on diet! Besides, if you reach for second bowl, what about dinner? :P

I hope I have leftovers for tomorrow :)