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Print This PostSoup, like roasted chicken, is one of those easy, easy, easy things to make that people tend to think is difficult. And the thing about soup that makes it even easier than chicken is you don’t have to worry about how long to cook it. Once you get all your goods into the pot and the noodles (or potatoes or barley or whatever) are soft, you’re good to go – or not, you can wait an hour after that if you want. Soup is terribly low maintenance, which of course, we really like in 
food.
Minestrone – Sort of…
(makes a lot)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
3 spicy Italian sausages, removed from their casings
2-3 Tablespoons Italian seasoning
2-3 “shakes” Cayenne pepper
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 peeled baking potatoes, chopped
1 can Cannellini beans, drained
4 small (or 2 large) Portabella mushrooms, chopped
2 cups shredded cabbage
32 oz (1 quart) chicken broth
1 28oz can chopped tomatoes with juice
Grated Parmesan cheese
Pour the olive oil into a large stock pot and saute the onion and garlic until soft and translucent – about 5-7 minutes. Add the sausages, remembering to remove them from their casings, and chop them up using a firm spatula. You could also just use your fingers and rip them up as you toss them into the pot which is easier and faster, but also messier. They just need to be in little pieces. Your call as to how you get them that way. Anyway, brown the sausages.
Once the sausages are cooked, add the Italian seasoning and Cayenne. Stir that around a bit. Add your chopped carrots, potatoes, beans, and mushrooms. Stir that around a bit too. Add the chicken broth and tomatoes (with their juice) and let that simmer for a bit – about 15 minutes. Add the shredded cabbage. Put a top on the pot, turn the heat to medium-low and let it simmer until the potatoes are cooked through – about 25-30 minutes. At this point you can either eat it or just let it keep simmering. If you let it keep cooking, turn the heat down to the lowest option. Or just turn it off and then reheat it when you’re ready to eat. That’s the thing with soup – it’s pretty hard to mess it up and it’s not like you’re going to burn it. You’d have to cook it on high-high heat for like 2 days before everything cooked away enough to burn. Anyway, give it a try and see what you think.
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- Tags: minestrone, soup