I really meant to get a food post up last week, but it just didn't happen. Going vegetarian has been pretty easy (it's not like I ate meat for every meal, before) and I'm enjoying it so far. We have been trying out some new recipes and foods that we aren't used to, so there's been a good deal of trial and error around here. The one good meal that we've both (Mikey and I) really enjoyed recently is: Minestrone! We've made it before, using a few different recipes- but this one's definitely our favorite AND Mikey's figured out that it's a pretty good base recipe for vegetable soups, in general!
The recipe we like is from the Forks Over Knives book (PS, you should really watch the documentary Forks over Knives- you can play it instant on netflix!)
here's our adaptation,
The base recipe:
6 cups of vegetable broth
one 14.5 oz. can chopped tomatoes
one 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp. crushed garlic
1/4 cup parsley
1.5 tsp. basil
salt & pepper
Mikey chops up the onion and garlic really fine (because I hate biting onions, but don't mind the taste) and lets those simmer with the parsley, basil, salt & pepper (to be honest, he doesn't really add salt until the end, and then I salt my own bowl too) with 1/4 c. of the vegetable broth. This is when you'd add in carrots and celery if you like yours to be soft (we add our carrots a little bit later on).
Once most of the liquid has been cooked out, add the remaining 5 3/4 c. broth and all the vegetables you want (the recipe suggests: green beans, potatoes, cabbage, chickpeas and cannellini beans; we've also done just carrots, celery and green beans), along with the can of chopped (diced) tomatoes and the can of tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and cook for 45 minutes.
Add in 1/2 c. whole wheat pasta (optional; we've done 1/2 c. of ditalini and we've also tried 1/4 c. of orzo- I'd recommend only 1/4 c. pasta if you've got a lot of vegetables in your soup)-(OH, and we like to add baby spinach to our soups, so this would be a good time to do that) and continue to cook for another 15 minutes, or until the pasta is tender.
Anyway, this might be good for you, but you might want to just pay attention to a real recipe because my recipe adaptation skills aren't amazing yet. Trust me, they will be eventually.
