LOL ... Hey! Some people like chicken soup ... Others love Minestrone!
I'm gonna make you Minestrone ...
I'm gonna show you everything ... everything
The secrets, discovered so far ... are ...
MAMA TAYLOR'S MINESTRONE
1 pound Ground Chuck
1 bunch Celery, cleaned and diced
1 pkg. Bear Creek Soup Mix (see buying information below)
1 tsp. Instant Beef Bouillon
1 can Veg-All, drained
1 can Kidney Beans, drained (can use two cans)
1 can Black Olives, sliced & drained
1 can Diced Tomatoes
4 cups Water
water)
Directions:
Brown hamburger meat and sausage in large fry pan, breaking the meat up as it cooks.
While the meat is browning, put the liquid (water and juice) in the soup pot and bring to a boil. Clean, slice and chop the celery. When the liquid has come to a boil, add the Bear Creek Soup Mix, the bouillon and the celery and let it boil for 3-5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium and drain and add Veg-All, Corn, Kidney Beans and Black Olives. Stir together and add diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.
Put the browned meat in a colander and rinse under very hot water for 2-3 minutes to get rid of excess grease. Shake the colander to get rid of any extra water and add to soup.
Stir everything together and cook at medium to medium low (depends on the stove) for about an hour. The point is for the flavors to blend.
Serves:
This will make 12-14 cups of soup so it's great, hearty soup for a crowd, served with home-made bread and a salad. If you don't have a crowd, don't worry! This freezes VERY well, and is even better reheated! I freeze in 1-1/2 cup containers. I take it from the freezer straight to the microwave, cooking on regular setting for 5-6 minutes for one bowl or 8-10 minutes for two servings.
Variations:
If there is something you don't like, leave it out ... Other ingredients you might like are potatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots, green beans or zucchini. There are no wrong answers ... Minestrone is like a really cuddly patchwork quilt ... in that it can be totally designed by you!
Bear Creek Soup Mixes are sold in grocery stores here, but they might not be available everywhere, so I found their web-site:
http://www.bearcreekfoods.com/products.html or
Products: Bear Creek Country Kitchen
They sell packaged dry soups that really only need water but I use the large package for flavoring more than anything else.
If the link doesn't work:
Bear Creek Country Kitchen
325 W. 600 S., Heber City, UT 84032
800/343-7252 (toll free)
My family prefers HEARTY soups with lots of meat and vegetables and this is certainly that!
Variations and Creativity are part of the charm!
History:
( From Wikipedia - Minestrone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )
Minestrone (meaning simply "dish", from Latin MINESTRARE = "to serve or dish up") is an Italian soup made with fresh seasonal vegetables, often with the addition of pasta or rice. Common ingredients include beans, onions, celery, carrots, stock, and tomatoes.
There is not a set recipe for minestrone, since it is usually made out of whatever vegetables are in season. It can be vegetarian, contain meat, or contain a meat-based soup base (such as chicken stock). In fact the word "minestrone" hasbecome a synonym for "hodgepodge".
The Italian soup, minestrone, is one of the cornerstones of Italian cuisine, and is probably more widely dispersed and eaten throughout Italy than pasta. Minestrone distinguishes itself by the large quantity of fresh vegetables used and its thick consistency.
Minestrone originally was a very humble dish - again being made primarily with left-overs - and more or less was intended for an everyday consumption with the idea of being filling and cheap as opposed to being made for a special occasion such as marriage or a celebration. It would likely have been the main course of a meal. Minestrone is part of what is known in Italy as "cucina povera" - literally "poor kitchen" meaning poorer people's cuisine.
Due to its unique origins, there is neither a fixed recipe, nor is it particularly similar across Italy, as it varies depending on traditional cooking times, ingredients, and season. Minestrone ranges from a thick and dense texture with very boiled-down vegetables, to a more brothy soup with large quantities of diced and lightly-cooked vegetables that may include meats.
Like many Italian dishes, minestrone was probably originally not a dish made for its own sake, though this point is argued. In other words, whereas one might set about killing a rabbit, with the intention of then eating cooked rabbit, one did not gather the ingredients of minestrone with the intention of making minestrone. The ingredients were pooled from ingredients of other dishes, often side dishes or "contorni" plus whatever was left over.
As eating habits and ingredients changed in Italy, so did minestrone. The Roman army is said to have marched on minestrone and pasta faggioli (or beans and pasta), the former making use of local and seasonal ingredients, the latter due to the long-life of dried goods.
The introduction of new ingredients from the Americas in the Middle Ages, including tomatoes and potatoes, also changed the soup to the point that tomatoes are now considered a staple ingredient (though the quantity used varies from northern to southern Italy).
There are two schools of thought on when the recipe for minestrone became more formalized. One argues that in the 1600's and 1700's minestrone emerged as a soup using exclusively fresh vegetables and was made for its own sake (meaning it no longer relied on left-overs), while the other school of thought argues that the dish had always been prepared exclusively with fresh vegetables for its own sake since pre-Roman times, but the name minestrone which lost its meaning of being made with left-overs and came to be associated with the dish in the 18th and 19th centuries. The earliest etymology of the modern use of minestrone dates to the 18th and 19th centuries.
Either way, minestrone has evolved into becoming a dish made for its own sake and is now often consumed as a starter dish and not the main course.
It is worth noting that while in English, there is mainly one word for soup: in Italian, there are three: zuppa, which is used in the sense of tomato soup, or fish soup; minestra, which is used in the sense of a more substantial soup such as a vegetable soup; and minestrone, which means a very substantial or large soup, though the meaning has now come to be associated with this particular dish.
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