Green minestrone with spinach sauce recipe
Hearty minestrone makes the most of seasonal green spring veg – packing every bowl with asparagus, peas and spinach. Spaghetti and butter beans bulk out the veg, whilst a swirl of vibrant spinach sauce brings this Italian-style veggie soup to life.
See method- Serves 4
- 15 mins to prepare and 25 mins to cook
- 368 calories / serving
- Freezable
- Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, sliced
- 50g spring onions, trimmed, halved and sliced
- 2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
- 2 celery sticks, finely diced
- 2 vegetable stock cubes, made up to 1.5ltr
- 100g spaghetti, snapped into short lengths
- 250g asparagus, trimmed
- 100g frozen peas
- 100g baby spinach
- 400g tin butter beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 15g fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- vegetarian hard cheese or Gruyère, grated, to serve (optional)
For the spinach sauce
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 50g baby spinach
- 30g vegetarian hard cheese or Gruyère, grated
- 50ml olive oil
Each serving contains
- Energy
- 1540kJ 368.0kcal
- Fat
- 19g
- Saturates
- 4g
- Salt
- 2.4g
- Sugars
- 10g
of the Reference intake
Carbohydrate 37.2gProtein 14.1gFibre 8.0g
Method
- Put the spinach sauce ingredients in a food processor. Season with pepper, then blitz to a rough paste. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and fry the garlic and spring onions for 2 mins. Stir in the carrots and celery and cook for a further 5 mins, stirring regularly. Pour in the vegetable stock, increase the heat and bring to a simmer. Add the spaghetti and cook for 10 mins.
- Meanwhile, slice the asparagus stems into 1cm rounds, leaving the tips whole. Add the asparagus and the peas to the pan and cook for 3 mins until just cooked through.
- Stir through the spinach, butter beans, lemon juice and parsley. Season with black pepper and cook for 2 mins. Divide between 4 bowls and serve with a heaped tbsp spinach sauce, and a sprinkling of cheese, if you like.
- Tip: The soup will keep for up to three days in the fridge but you might need to top up the stock as the spaghetti and veg will soak it up.
- See more Vegetarian recipes
Freezing and defrosting guidelines
This soup can be frozen. In order to enjoy optimum flavour and quality, frozen items are best used within 3 months of their freezing date. For more tips on freezing and defrosting food, read our article Love Your Freezer.
