wholesome winter soup

It's been quite a while since I blogged about food. Last night I made a wonderful simple vegetable minestrone for dinner. It was the perfect dinner for a chilly night. We ate this with toast and homemade bread and butter pickles and pickled beets.

Vegetable Minestrone Soup

1 large onion, diced
3 leeks (white and light green parts only), rinsed and chopped
5 carrots, peeled and diced
5 stalks celery, peeled and diced
2 TB fresh rosemary chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans diced tomatoes with liquid
1 quart homemade chicken stock
2 cups water
1 head green cabbage cored and roughly chopped
4 cups cooked white beans* or canned and rinsed white beans
2 hand fulls fresh basil shredded
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese for garnish, optional
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in large soup pot. Add diced onion, carrot, celery, and leek, cook ten minutes stirring occasionally. Add garlic and rosemary cook another 5 minutes or so till veggies are somewhat tender and onion is translucent. Add stock, water and canned tomatoes with juice. Bring to boil, reduce and simmer 15 minutes. Add cabbage place a lid on the pot and cook 10 minutes. Add white beans and basil. cook another five minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. This soup needs kind of a lot of salt so keep adding and tasting until it tastes really bright and fresh. Serve with Parmesan cheese on top.

*soak 2 1/2-3 cups dried white beans in water all day. when you get home rinse beans, add to pot, cover with water, bring to boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook 1-1.5 hours until tender
*adapted from Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef, minestrone soup