Vegan Minestrone alla Milanese
You may not be familiar with this type of vegan minestrone, but I’m sure you’ll find it comforting. Modeled after a minestrone I had in Milan, it has a creamy broth infused with thyme, rosemary, and saffron. It is a nourishing meal in a bowl, with a variety of veggies, plus rice, beans, and potatoes.
Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion diced
- 4 ribs celery diced
- 3 carrots peeled and diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 potato peeled and diced small
- 1/4 head cabbage diced small
- 1 zucchini peeled and diced small
- 4 leaves kale ribs separated and minced, leaves shredded
- 1/2 cup arborio rice uncooked
- 1 can white (cannellini) beans (15-oz can) rinsed and drained
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 cups vegetable stock
- 1 sprig thyme 2 or 3 inch
- 1 sprig rosemary 2 or 3 inch
- 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads optional
- 5 sprigs parsley chopped, for garnish
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. When the pot is hot, add the onion, carrot, celery, and the salt.
- Saute for 5 minutes, stirring.
- (Optional) Tie the thyme and rosemary sprigs in a piece of cheesecloth so that they can infuse the broth without falling apart in it.
- Add 6 of the 8 cups of vegetable stock. Increase to medium-high heat. When the stock starts to boil, add the potato, arborio rice, cabbage, saffron, thyme, and rosemary.
- Reduce to medium-low heat, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add white beans, kale, and zucchini. Continue to cook, covered, for 3-5 minutes, until the zucchini is cooked through.
- Remove pot from heat. Remove thyme and rosemary sprigs from the pot. Add nutritional yeast and stir until well blended.
- (Optional) If you like your soup to have a creamier texture, you can mash the soup a bit with a muddle or potato masher. This will release some of the potato starch into the broth.
- Serve. Garnish with chopped parsley.
Notes
The saffron adds a nice color and aroma but it can be skipped.
If you’d like to make substitutions, focus on the zucchini, cabbage, kale, and beans. Do not change the onion, celery, carrot, or potato - they are the core of this soup.
Chickpeas or pinto beans make good replacements for the white (cannellini) beans.
You can replace the kale with spinach, but if you do, add it right before serving. Spinach needs much less time to cook.
Yellow squash works just as well as zucchini.
If you can, tie the thyme and rosemary in a piece of cheesecloth or use an infuser. This will keep them from falling apart in the soup and help maintain a consistent flavor.
Instead of mixing in all of the nutritional yeast at once, you can serve it on the table and season each bowl individually, as you might with parmesan cheese. Do be generous with the nutritional yeast.