Minestrone Soup

My hubby is doing projects around the house, my boy is napping, and this chilly Saturday calls for a warm soup! I adapted this from Mom's Minestrone on justcookalready.com. I loved that she used orecchiette pasta and tomato sauce for a thicker broth and sweet flavor. However, I can rarely follow a recipe without my own additions and deletions. I have some aromatic fresh herbs from my garden that I wanted to add, baby spinach to get some beautiful greens into the meal (next time I will use some rainbow chard), and Cannellini beans which are both higher in fiber than the traditional kidney, and in my opinion, much more elegant (if a bean can be elegant!). I served this with warmed and sliced baguette with Trader Joes Carmelized onion dip as a spread. Hit the spot!

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped tomatoes (1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes if they are not in season)

4 low sodium chicken broth

1 cup water

8 oz. tomato sauce

4 ribs celery, chopped

3 large carrots, chopped

2 large onions, chopped

1 packed Tbsp each of chopped fresh basil, thyme and oregano

4 lg cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp raw sugar

1 can cannellini beans

3 oz (3/4 cup) orecchette pasta
2 Trader Joes turkey meatballs, chopped into small pieces (optional)
Parmesan to taste

Instructions:

Throw everything except the pasta into a large soup pot over medium heat and allow to simmer and cook for 40-45 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. In the last ten minutes, add the pasta. Garnish with freshly shaved Parmesan and a Thyme sprig.

Serves 4-6