Minestrone soup
This budget minestrone is the classic Italian soup made with cannellini beans and broken up spaghetti. Feel free to stir in extra vegetables, depending on what you have in the fridge. This is designed to be a low cost recipe.
Each serving provides 300 kcal, 18.3g protein, 37.1g carbohydrate (of which 14g sugars), 5.2g fat (of which 1g saturates), 16.5g fibre and 1.85g salt.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 3 large celery sticks, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1.2 litres/2 pints vegetable or chicken stock, made from stock cubes
- 400g tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 100g/3½ dried spaghetti, broken into short lengths
- ¼ head green cabbage, finely shredded
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Heat the olive oil in a large lidded saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery, season with a little salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the vegetables have softened.
Add the garlic and fry for another minute. Stir in the tomato purée and cook for a further 3 minutes.
Tip in the tomatoes and stock. Cover with a lid and bring slowly to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
Add the beans and pasta and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked. Add the cabbage and cook for another 2 minutes. If the soup is too thick, add some hot water to reach your preferred consistency.
Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.
Recipe Tips
The minestrone is vegetarian, as long as you use vegetable stock.
In September 2023 this recipe was costed at an average of £3.97 when checking prices at four UK supermarkets.
This recipe is designed to be made in conjunction with a low-cost store-cupboard, for more details click here to see how our budget recipes were costed.