Minestrone Soup with Quinoa

By Wendy Polisi on August 2010

I have always found that soup is a great way to help be control my diet.  Since it takes so long to eat if I have it before a meal I find that I eat so much less.  One of my favorite kinds of soup is minestrone soup.  It is both healthy and filling!  Turn it into quinoa soup and you have got a real winner.  Between the quinoa and the beans, this dish is protein packed meaning that you don’t have to worry about getting hungry five minutes after you eat.  In fact, minestrone soup is one of the few soup recipes that I consider a meal in and of itself.

While most minestrone soup recipes use canned beans, I like to make minestrone with dried cooked beans.  To do this you need to soak the beans in water over night in the refrigerator.  Drain and cover with fresh water.  Simmer uncovered for 45 – 55 minutes, adding salt in the last five minutes.

You may have never tried a recipe for minestrone soup that has quinoa in it, but don’t let that scare you off.  This is a great recipe that also happens to be extremely healthy!  It’s another AMAZING way of cooking quinoa.

If you want to cook the broth a bit longer to let the flavors combine, you can cook it for an hour and just add in the quinoa in the last 20 minutes.  But, if you are pressed for time, this recipe is great as written.

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Minestrone Soup Recipe (aka Minestrone Quinoa Soup)

Ingredients

2 T olive oil, best quality

1 cup of diced carrots

1 cup of diced fennel

1 cup of diced red onion

1 celery rib, diced

2 zucchini diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

2 tsp thyme, chopped

6 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)

1 ½ cups cannellini beans, cooked

2 cups seeded and diced plum tomatoes

½ cup quinoa, rinsed

Salt and pepper

1 cup spinach, fresh and finely chopped

2 T basil, sliced

½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a heavy stock pot over medium heat.  Add carrots, fennel, onion, celery garlic, bay leaves and thyme and cook for 5 minutes.  Add zucchini and cook for an additional 4 minutes.
2. Add broth, beans, tomatoes and quinoa.  Increase the heat to bring to a boil.  Reduce to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until the quinoa is tender.
3. Remove bay leaves and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Stir in spinach and basil just before serving.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Stay tuned for more quinoa recipes, steak recipes and zucchini recipes!  As always, I would love to hear any questions or comments.  And if you have a favorite minestrone soup recipe, do share!

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Tagged as: minestrone, minestrone soup, minestrone soup recipe, minestrone soup recipes, recipe for minestrone soup, Zucchini Recipes