Minestrone

Minestrone, this is a type of soup. The only difference is that it's not liquidized . Good healthy and very nutritions , low calorie dinner. Plus it's filling and warm , brilliant for these cold days. I flavoured it a little adding bacon and chicken to it. You could do it with just the veggies. But I was using it as a main dish for dinner, so I needed something else to it to make it more filling.

Minestrone

Ingredients

4 rashers of bacon
Olive oil
Chopper rosemary
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
1 onion
2 ripe tomatoes
1/2 broccoli
1/2 cauliflower
Tomato paste
Dried oregano
Dried mixed herbs
2 bay leaves
2 chicken stock cubes
200 g baby spinach
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen broad beans
A handful of rice
A handful of small pasta ( I used bows)
Chicken breast ( halved lengthwise to make it thinner and cook quicker)
Parmesan
Seasoning

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Serves : 5
Level : Medium

Method

Fry the finely sliced bacon until crisp. Set aside for later. Get all the sliced/ diced vegetables, apart from the broccoli, tomatoes and spinach. Heat up a little oil in the pot, and fry the vegetables until a little soft. Season , and put the bay leaves in. Add the tomato paste. Crumble the stock cubes,add the dried herbs and cover with hot water. Cover the pot  with a lid and leave to cook for 15 minutes.

Now it's time to add the chicken breast. They will poach in the liquid of the minestrone. Cover and leave to cook for a further 20 minutes. 

Add the tomatoes, rice and the little pasta. Cook for a further 15 minutes, before adding the broccoli, peas and broad beans . Cover for a further 5 minutes and add then add the spinach . Cover and turn the heat off, leave the spinach to wilt for a couple of minutes.

Serve the minestrone topped with chicken , sprinkle over some bacon from earlier and parmesan shavings.