I know I’ve mentioned that with the cold weather coming, I’m excited to be having more soups and stews. They are just so great because they warm you up nicely and it almost makes you forget how cold it it outside. Although it’s not quite winter yet, it’s definitely getting chilly here.

I try to make soups whenever I can and this minestrone was a good one. I made this recipe on a gloomy and rainy day, and it was so comforting. This is also one of those soups that can pretty much be a meal on its own because of how much good stuff is in it, and it fills you up nicely.

A classic minestrone soup has a tomato base with a variety of vegetables and rice or pasta. There are quite a few different ingredients in this soup (~20) but don’t let that be a deterrent for making it. Each item adds so much flavour, texture, colour and/or nutrition. With all the vegetables, lentils, beans and macaroni, this was quite a hearty and protein-rich bowl of food.

The actual soup part of the soup (liquid) had really nice flavour from the herbs and seasoning. I also really liked the addition of lemon juice at the end to brighten it all up. There was nothing fancy on the palate when eating, it was just the ultimate comfort soup.

One more thing – even if you’re a meat eater like me, you will hardly notice that this is a vegetarian soup. There is so much other stuff going on, and like I said you’ll be full after eating it anyways. But also, I didn’t put any parmesan cheese on top so this soup was actually vegan! It just goes to show you that you don’t always need to have animal protein to make something a meal.

Have a good weekend 🙂