I hate to say it…but winter is coming. Not in a scary “Game of Thrones” kind of way. A more real, “its a bit chilly in the mornings and the evenings are drawing in” kind of way! To get you through the autumn / winter months, try this yummy minestrone and bacon soup recipe.
This warming autumn and winter staple is great to cook-up in a batch at the weekend, and then eat for lunch / tea until it is all gone! It won’t take long, I really LOVE this recipe!
To make my Minestrone and Bacon soup recipe you will need…
Ingredients
- 3 sticks celery (diced)
- 2 carrots (diced)
- 2 courgettes (diced) (thanks to my lovely friend Jen at We are Allotmental for the scrummy carrots and courgettes – look at the size of that courgette!)
- 2 onions (diced)
- 2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 1tsp oil
- 3tsp paprika
- 1tbsp tomato puree
- 180g pancetta or bacon
- 800g tinned tomatoes
- 400g tin haricot beans
- 200g pasta (I used soup-pasta but you could use spaghetti broken into pieces)
- 2.5pt beef stock
- splash each of balsamic vinegar and Worcester sauce
Method
1 – Add onion, carrot, celery to a large soup pan with 1tsp oil and fry gently for 3-5 minutes
2 – Add diced courgette to the pan and stir through whilst you chop the pancetta or bacon into strips.
3 – Push the veg to one side in the pan and add the bacon and garlic. Fry lightly before stirring into rest of veg
4 – Add paprika and tomato puree and stir through
5 – Pour in the stock and tinned tomatoes and then simmer gently for 30-45 minutes
6 – Add the haricot beans and pasta and then simmer for a further 10-15 minutes (until pasta and veg is soft)
7 – Add splash of balsamic vinegar and Worcester sauce and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve!
I really LOVE eating this topped with a little cheddar cheese and some crusty bread!
And that’s it! super-yummy, not too naughty “meal-in-a-bowl” Minestrone and bacon soup recipe.
Enjoy!
Jo-ver for now
x
That recipe sounds amazing! I’ll have to try it.
Also, I never heard the term “courgette” before this. I always call them zucchini. You learn something new every day!
thanks! sorry! of course. I forget that it’s called something different over in the USA. I’ll amend the post so as not to confuse!! I’m sure they still taste yummy whatever we call them! 😊
LOL, no worries. Google told me very quickly what they were! And they’re one of my favorite vegetables, so it’s fun to know what they’re called across the pond.
Dang, now I’m hungry 🙂 I’m saving this one. Summer is coming in here but we work such long hours that soup never goes astray 🙂
thanks! 😊 after I made it on a rainy cold sunday, it turned out 20 degrees again! I’ve still been enjoying this for my lunch this week though!
Yummm!! I love soup and I can’t wait for some nice cool weather to make this!! 😀