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

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