Green Minestrone: Big Soup, Big Taste

By Dara O’Brien
Creative Director, Lake Isle Press

One of my friends lives alone, yet her fridge is stuffed to the gills. I have learned that this is not an indicator of how frequently she cooks. It is full because she doesn’t eat or cook with leftovers or plan her meals around ingredients she already has. 

Your fridge can get quite full if you don’t bother to eat that leftover pasta you bought home from a restaurant or the remainders of your take-out lo mein or that chicken you roasted. Compound that by bringing home some arugula or a head of broccoli when you already have watercress and kale. Or how about picking up a jar of Dijon because you’re pretty sure you don’t have any but if you could just see to the back of the middle shelf you would know you have three half-filled jars stashed away.

My friend Chris never does that. He lives in a studio apartment with a half refrigerator. He cooks frequently and makes complicated meals from scratch, and he does it all with just that little fridge. It’s because he always uses the food he has. I’ve seen him turn leftover green bean casserole into quiche and add gravy to refresh leftover biscuits—he’ll reserve half a piece of bacon to use in another meal rather than throw it away.

Eliminating food waste is my goal, as well. I prepare two or three meals almost every day and my fridge is seldom full. My freezer is another story, and my pantry is often overflowing, but my fridge, where food can so easily go bad, normally has room to spare. It doesn’t take a genius; you just have to keep track of the food you have and eat it before it spoils. The more frequently and efficiently you cook, the less you have to toss. This is especially true if, like me, you live in a city where fresh food is just around the corner so there’s no need to buy in advance or stock up.

Repurposing leftovers and finding ways to combine ingredients I have on hand isn’t just about preventing waste: it’s one of the ways I discover new recipes. I stumbled on an easy one for an individual cauliflower sformato when I was searching for a way to use leftover roasted cauliflower, made potato leek soup by tweaking an unending batch of scalloped potatoes, and started making fried rice to rescue a little nub of pork tenderloin.

The other day, my challenge was to combine green beans and zucchini in a pantry-based main dish. I looked to Rachael Ray’s “30-Minute Meals 2,” published by Lake Isle Press, and found her recipe for Green Minestrone. All I needed was a bag of fresh spinach and I was good to go.

It’s a simple recipe and the leftovers reheat well. Since I subbed bacon for pancetta I sautéed it a little longer than the recipe advises. I also cooked the pasta separately so the leftovers wouldn’t get mushy. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as written, and it was fragrant and tasty.

I am a soup fan any time of year; it’s warming for winter, fresh and light for summer. I will definitely make this again. But in the spirit of zero waste, if I have other veggies on hand—carrots, asparagus, cabbage, potatoes—and they’re approaching their use-by date, into the pot they’ll go.

Rachael Ray’s Green Minestrone | photo by Dara O’Brien

Green Minestrone

Click here for printable recipe.

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (evoo) (twice around the pan)
4 slices pancetta or ¼ pound thick-cut prosciutto, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
1 medium zucchini, diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 can (15 ounces) white cannellini beans
1 can (15 ounces) garbanzo beans
8 cups chicken broth (two 1-quart paper containers)
1 cup ditalini pasta or mini penne pasta
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 sack (10 ounces) triple-washed spinach, stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped
½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Romano cheese, plus extra to pass at the table
12 to 16 leaves fresh basil, torn or shredded OR ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

PREPARATION

Heat a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add evoo and pancetta or prosciutto. Sauté 2 minutes, then add onions, celery, garlic, bay leaf, and zucchini to the pot, and season with salt and pepper. Sauté 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add white beans, garbanzo beans, and chicken broth to the pot; cover, and bring to a boil. Add pasta and green beans and cook 8 minutes, or until pasta is just tender. Stir in spinach to wilt, 1 minute. Stir in grated cheese and ladle soup into bowls. Top with basil or chopped parsley.

Recipe from “Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals 2” by Rachael Ray, Lake Isle Press, 2003

Green Minestrone Recipe
from “Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals 2” by Rachael Ray, Lake Isle Press, 2003

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