The River Cafe's winter minestrone
Serves 5
Easy
Total time:
Ready in 1¾ hours
A really thick, filling minestrone soup - tastes even better after a day
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- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium carrotsroughly chopped
- 1 large red onioncoarsely chopped
- 1 head of celerycoarsely chopped, keeping the leaves
- 1 head of garliccloves peeled
- 1kg Swiss chardleaves shredded and stalks roughly chopped
- a good handful of parsleyfinely chopped
- 400g can peeled plum tomatoesdrained of most of their juices, roughly chopped
- 1kg cavolo nerostalks removed, leaves shredded (or savoy cabbage)
- 410g can cannellini beansdrained and rinsed
- about 700ml boiling chickenor vegetable stock
- a few sprigs of winter herbs such as thymeor sage, chopped
- freshly grated parmesanor vegetarian alternative
- extra-virgin olive oilfor drizzling
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal263
- fat10g
- saturates2g
- carbs27g
- sugars0g
- fibre9g
- protein17g
- salt2.64g
Method
step 1
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and slowly fry the carrots, onion and celery until soft and dark. This will take about 20 minutes but it’s worth it – the slow cooking gives a lovely taste. Add the garlic, chard stalks and half the parsley, and stir to prevent sticking. Stir in the tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes or until reduced.
step 2
Add half the Swiss chard leaves, half the cavolo nero, three-quarters of the beans, and the boiling stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat. Simmer for 30 minutes. Pour in more stock if needed – don’t add too much – it should be thick.
step 3
Add the remaining Swiss chard and cavolo nero and blanch briefly so they remain green and crisp. Season when slightly cooled.
step 4
Purée the remaining cannellini beans coarsely in a blender with some of the cooking liquid. Add to the soup – it should be very green. Stir in the herbs and serve hot with Parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
