beanless minestrone soup

Photo by rosemarypepper

Watching Lidia on the first crispy Sunday of fall, she made authentic Italian minestrone soup for an episode on Baltimore. Realizing we had everything but beans in the house, I made a small, amazing batch, pictured above with cabbage, kale and crushed red pepper.

Ingredients

2 cloves chopped garlic
3T olive oil
half onion, chopped
1T tomato paste, tubed
celery stalk, chopped
baby carrots, chopped
bay leaf or 2
boiling water
1 potato, diced to fit on spoon
handful of kale, deribbed, rustic chop
handful of cabbage, same deal

Directions

Take a heavy bottomed saucepot, medium-sized or smaller, get the olive oil to shimmer. Add minced garlic until fragrant. Add chopped onion until almost translucent, taking care to not brown anything.

Take a wooden spoon and move the onions to one side, creating a clear "hot spot" space at the bottom of the pan. Dollop tomato paste onto the hot spot and stir it until it smells toasty, then stir it all together.

Add chopped celery, chopped carrots and stir for a minute or two. Add chopped potato pieces and a fresh or dried bay leaf or 2. Add boiling stock of choice (water is okay too) start with 2 cups and add more as needed so that it looks like soup. Add crushed red pepper but no salt until serving.

Simmer on low for 30 minutes and keep an eye on it.

Add handfuls of roughly chopped kale and cabbage, simmer for 10 or more minutes, season to taste with salt and more crushed red pepper.

Serve with a drizzle of your finest olive oil on top.

1.5 hours