This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Food Lion for IZEA Worldwide. All opinions are 100% mine.
My boys call this incredible soup. My ten-year-old twins. That’s saying something! Especially since it is chock full of fresh summer vegetables straight from the garden. I once told my friend this fresh vegetable soup had 25 vegetables in it, but that’s not quite true. It has eleven vegetables to make it delicious, and even my ten-year-olds will eat it and get seconds.
So if you are wondering what kinds of vegetables my ten-year-olds will eat, here are the veggies we include:
- Parsnips
- Turnips
- Carrots
- Zucchini
- Onions
- Yellow Squash
- Potatoes
- Savoy Cabbage
- Celery
- Fresh Green Beans
- Plum Tomatoes (This is the only canned vegetable in the soup; all the others are fresh and straight from the garden or produce stand.)
Is that not an incredible list? I can already hear you saying “But my ten-year-old won’t eat all of that.” My answer is this: First of all, how do you know? Have you ever tried to feed your kids this soup?
And secondly, you don’t exactly have to tell your kids what’s in the soup. Just chop it all up real little and tell them what we told our kids the first time. All the ingredients had the names of their favorite gaming characters fighting a battle for good health. “What’s this? It’s a giant, helping you see better.” “What’s this one? It’s a goblin helping you absorb more vitamin C.” That kind of thing.
So here’s how it works. First, you put a little bit of olive oil in your largest soup pot and heat it up on medium or medium-high heat. Then you add the onions and stir. Cook the onions until they are translucent and add the celery. Cook the celery for two minutes and add the carrots, the parsnips, and the turnips.
Cook for two minutes and add the potatoes, squash, and zucchini. Cook for two minutes and add the can of plum tomatoes, the beef broth, and the fresh green beans. Cook for ten minutes. Add the fresh chopped savoy cabbage, salt and pepper, and a chunk of parmesan.
Turn down the heat and simmer this for as long as you can stand to wait. Typical minestrone recipes suggest two hours. but we usually wait twenty to thirty minutes and eat it up. Serve the soup hot, topped with freshly-grated parmesan and a nice crusty roll.
One time I posted a recipe that used all fresh vegetables and a friend told me she tried it and it was horrible. Turns out she tried it with all frozen or canned vegetables. So I want to make sure I tell you that all of the vegetables in this recipe should be fresh, not canned or frozen, except for the plum tomatoes. This is very important as you will not get the same results at all if you try to substitute veggies that aren’t fresh!
I love shopping for fresh vegetables in the newly remodeled produce section at Food Lion. The selection and quality are excellent and the layout makes it easy to find what I need. Of course, you can also just use the Online Shopping with pick up or delivery and you won’t even have to go into a store.
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
- 2 onions, diced
- 2 stalks of celery, diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 parsnips, peeled and diced
- 1 turnip, peeled and diced
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 1 yellow squash, diced
- 3 red potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 cups of shredded savoy cabbage
- 1 handful of fresh green beans, chop off the ends and dice
- 1 large can of plum tomatoes
- 6-8 cups of beef broth
- 1/2 wedge of parmesan cheese, partially grated
- salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- Add the olive oil to your stock pot and heat it to medium or medium-high.
- Add the onions and stir.
- Cook the onions until they are translucent and add the celery. Stir with each addition of new ingredients.
- Cook the celery for two minutes and add the carrots, parsnips, and turnips.
- Cook for two minutes and add the potatoes, squash, and zucchini.
- Cook for two minutes and add the can of plum tomatoes, the beef broth, and the fresh green beans.
- Cook for ten minutes.
- Add the fresh chopped savoy cabbage, salt and pepper, and a chunk of parmesan.
- Reduce the heat and simmer for as long as you can stand to wait. Typical minestrone recipes suggest two hours. but we usually wait twenty to thirty minutes and eat it up.
- Serve the soup hot, topped with freshly-grated parmesan and a nice crusty roll.
If you are planning your summer, make sure you check out the Food Lion Recipes for more great ways to use fresh summer vegetables and be sure to look at the Weekly Deals.
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