It doesn’t have to be cold outside to get me cooking up delicious hearty soups for my friends and family and my Sausage and Bean Minestra is a perfect light dinner any time of year.
With all the fresh vegetables in the market, summertime is my favorite time to make this delicious Italian soup. It’s the kind of soup that almost begs to have a piece of crusty bread dunked into it!
What Ingredients do I need to make a Sausage and Bean Minestra?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make my Sausage and Bean Minestra. In Chef Speak this is called the “Mise en Place” which translates to “Everything in its Place”.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed up the cooking process, but it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
Do I have to use Chicken stock to make this soup?
No, you don’t. If you want to keep it completely vegetarian use vegetable stock. You can also use beef stock if you prefer a heartier beef flavor.
How do I make Sausage and Bean Minestra?
My soups almost always start with a mirepoix or as the Italians would call it a soffrito, which is a diced combination of celery, onions and carrots.
Always starting your soup by allowing your vegetables to cook a bit before adding in any water, this process is called sweating down the vegetables.
After the initial cooking of the vegetables you can add the stock, and the remainder of the ingredients to the pot.
Do I have to use all of the ingredients to make a Minestra?
No, you don’t. Whatever I happen to have on hand can find its way into my soup pot. While I start most of my soups from fresh ingredients these days, there was a time that the soup served another purpose, and that was an outlet for leftovers and scraps.
Those were the soups that we loved and some were hard to duplicate because of what was used. I do still make about 50 percent of my soups that way, utilizing leftovers, but some soups just need to be started from scratch.
Creating soups that your family and friends will enjoy eating isn’t difficult. Use the ingredients that they like. If you’re not fond of beans leave them out. If you don’t want to use sausage leave it out or replace it with chicken. It’s really that easy.
Wouldn’t your family love to sit down to a bowl of this delicious soup? I promise it will bring smiles to your table and requests for seconds!
More Soup Recipes You’ll Love!
Sausage and Bean Minestra
Ingredients
- 3 carrots diced
- 1 small onion diced
- 4 stalks celery diced
- 1 cup green beans cut into ¾-1 inch pieces
- 1 green squash diced
- 2 cups chopped escarole or greens of your choice
- ½ lb sweet sausage
- 16 ounces cannellini beans one small can drained
- 1 cup uncooked soup size pasta ½ pound
- 4 cups chicken stock more if needed. (vegetable stock can be used)
- season with black pepper and sea salt to taste
Instructions
- in a small stock pot add a tablespoon of olive oil, the diced carrots, celery and onion. Allow them to cook for 5-7 minutes.
- Add the diced zucchini, and green beans and continue to cook for about 5 minutes
- Remove the sausage from the casing and add it to the stock pot, break apart the sausage and allow it to brown
- Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil, turn down the heat and allow to simmer.
- Add the cannellini beans and continue to simmer for about 30 minutes.
- Add in the pasta and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
- add in the escarole and allow to wilt.
- serve with a sprinkle of grated cheese and crusty bread.
Nutrition
Katie Youngs
This is one of my favorite soup recipes.
Addie
Love all those veggies in there! So yummy!
Alice | SkinnySpatula
This is exactly my kind of soup!
Kayla DiMaggio
This looks amazing! It is packed full of vegetables which I love!