Garden Minestrone Soup

For a long while, I was scared of soup.  It just intimidated me.  It's so good and there are so many different kinds out there, that I thought it was hard to make... until I started making it.  Now I know that soup is a dish that is very forgiving.  You can put anything into it, as long as you have the same basic base.  (Either a good meat stock or the golden trio of carrots, onion, and celery.)

The cooling weather outside made me want something warm and cozy for dinner.  What better than soup?  Naturally, the first thing I looked for was stuff lying around from my garden that could go into it. The more I looked, the more I found, and pretty soon, over half of what made up the soup came from my backyard soil:

Garden bounty!!!

* Onions
* Carrots
* Kale
* Potatoes
* Oregano
* Green Beans

The rest of the ingredients include: several stalks of celery (the core that no one wants to eat is really good for this purpose), a cube of vegetable bullion, a couple cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, basil, a can of pinto beans, a handful of pasta, and a jar of marinara/tomato sauce. (The box of pasta is a sample that I got from vegfest, it was the perfect amount :))

Start by sauteing the onion in some olive oil in a soup pot until transparent.  Add the garlic, celery and carrots (chopped) and saute for a couple minutes.  Dissolve the bullion cube in 4 cups of boiling water.  Add the water to the pot with the potatoes.  Bring to a light boil and add the rest of the ingredients.  Let it get back to a simmer and add the salt and pepper to taste, and the herbs. 

I've found that the thing with soup is to let it simmer (covered) for a long time.  The longer the flavors are able to mesh together in the pot, the tastier the soup will be.  I think this pot was able to cook together for 4 hours.  Serve with some delicious crusty bread and enjoy!  We enjoyed it in front of our first fire of the season in the wood stove.  Cozy and delicious!

I didn't have time to bake the bread myself, but if I had, that would have been the ultimate.