Vegan Minestrone

Hi Guys!

You might think I'm Jo - but I'm not! I'm Amy, Jo's sister, and she's given me the keys to her blogging kingdom! Mwahaha! We thought the only thing better than one of our heads was both our heads together, dreaming up recipes. When you think about food as much as we do, you've got a lot of time to create!

If you're a new vegan, you might have cruised the shelves of your local supermarket, looking for canned food to get you out of trouble when you need a quick fix or are just too tired to cook. I was surprised by how many of the supermarket 'vegetable' soups are actually laden with dairy and meat products. This soup freezes really well and can be kept for those times when you need a 'get out of the kitchen free card'.

Just take however much you want to freeze out of the slow cooker before you add the risoni, as pasta can be a bit dodgy in the freezer.

I served it up with Garlic Ciabatta - which makes it seem a bit fancier than just soup for dinner.

Hearty Minestrone

Ingredients

1 onion

1 carrot

1 small zucchini

2 cups chopped pumpkin

handful of green beans

1 440gm tin of crushed tomatoes

1 litre Massel brand (vegan) chicken stock

4 tbsp tomato paste

½ cup risoni, or other small pasta shape (alternately you can use spaghetti broken into approx 3 cm pieces)

2 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp garlic

2 tsp paprika

1 tbsp chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

• Chop all vegetables into 1cm pieces
• Add all ingredients to slow cooker
• Cook on high for at least 6 hours (or while you’re at work. Extra time won’t hurt).
• 15 minutes before serving, add risoni and stir thoroughly.
• Serve with warm bread or Garlic Ciabatta.

·

Garlic Ciabatta

Ingredients

1 ciabatta loaf or similar crusty bread

¾ cup dairy free spread (eg. Nuttelex, Olive Grove)

½ tsp salt

black pepper to taste

2 tbsp chopped herbs (oregano & parsley both work)

OR

1 tbsp dried herbs

2 cloves of garlic

OR

2 tsp crushed garlic

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees
• Cut the ciabatta into thick slices
• Mix all other ingredients in a bowl
• Place the ciabatta on a tray with aluminium foil underneath the loaf (enough to wrap the loaf completely)
• Spread both sides of each bread slice with the garlic butter, keeping loaf in its original shape
• Wrap loaf with foil and bake for 20 minutes, until butter has melted and edges are crispy
• Serve hot