A vegan minestrone soup is all the good things about winter in one hearty bowl: it’s warming, cosy with vibrant colours that’ll make you feel less sad about the weather outside.
Plus, loading up your plate with vegetables in this way doubles up as making sure you’re getting all the veg you need to sustain workouts and stressful meetings while hitting your five-a-day all at once.
We’d recommend making a giant batch and reheating whenever you’ve forgotten to cook, or whenever the cravings hit. And hit they shall…
What You Need
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced into half-moons
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 large potato, cut into dice-size pieces
2 tsp minced fresh rosemary
3 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch chilli flakes
1 bay leaf
1 tin diced tomatoes (or 3 large tomatoes)
½ cup black lentils
7 cups vegetable stock
¼ tsp salt
1 cup small pasta shells
5 cups shredded kale
2 tsp red-wine vinegar
Juice of ½ lemon
⅓ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup minced fresh basil
Ground pepper
Method
1/ Grab a large pot and heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and sauté until golden brown (three to five minutes). Add the potato, rosemary, garlic, chilli flakes and bay leaf. Cook for 30 seconds to get the garlic going, then add the diced tomatoes and lentils and give it another 30 seconds.
2/ Pour in all the stock and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat and cook until the lentils are almost ready, but the potato is tender (15 minutes).
3/ Add the salt and pasta. Simmer until the pasta is cooked all the way (five to 10 minutes).
4/ Add kale and simmer for two more minutes.
5/ Stir in the vinegar and lemon juice and remove from the heat.
6/ Fold in the parsley and basil, wait two minutes, then check seasoning, adding pepper if necessary. Remove bay leaf and serve.
SERVES 6. Per serving: 1 128kJ, 3g fat (0g sat), 52g carbs, 540mg sodium, 10g fibre, 11g protein
Recipes extracted from Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give a F*ck by Matt Holloway and Michelle Davis (From R425, Takealot.com, published by Rodale). Visit Bad Manners for more recipes.
