Summer Harvest Minestrone

A nourishing summer soup, seasoned with fresh garden herbs. Perfect for a thunderstormy August afternoon.

I thought I would break up the sourdough recipes and share my favorite summer harvest soup.

We have been grilling most of our meals on the Traeger Flatrock, and after a week of rain and harvesting the last bits of the garden that survived the crazy storms last week, it felt like time to break out the dutch oven and make some soup. Growing up, my mom made the simplest minestrone with rich beef stock, ground beef, diced veggies, and tiny little alphabet pasta noodles. My siblings and I would race to see who could find all the letters to spell their name the fastest. If adding pasta to this soup, I recommend cooking it in a separate pot and serving on the side, along with chopped basil, lemon wedges, olive oil, and fresh parmesan. And like any soup, this actually tastes better leftover. I’m also including my favorite parmesan garlic toast recipe which is a great way to use up those leftover scraps of sourdough bread.

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Summer Harvest Minestrone

Serves 8

Summer Harvest Minestrone

3.35MB ∙ PDF file

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TOOLS

• Knife

• Cutting Board

• Dutch Oven

• Wooden Spatula

INGREDIENTS

• 4 Tbsp olive oil or ghee

• 1 onion, diced

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 3 ribs celery, diced

• 4 carrots, diced

• 2-3 zucchini, diced

• 2-3 cups garden tomatoes, chopped or one 28 oz jar chopped tomatoes

• 1 leek, chopped

• a handful or two of green beans, chopped

• 1 lb ground beef

• 2-3 Tbsp fresh thyme, oregano, basil, and parsley, chopped

• 2 bay leaves

• Kale, chard, or spinach, chopped

• 1 jar Jovial Cannellini beans

• 5-6 cups beef broth

• Salt and Pepper to taste

• lemon wedges, basil, and parmesan for topping

• optional cooked pasta of choice

METHOD

In a large dutch oven, add olive oil and all vegetables. Saute’ over medium low heat for 8-10 minutes, keeping a close eye that the are not burning. Add more oil or ghee if you have a lot of vegetables and the bottom of the dutch oven seems dry. Add ground beef and chopped herbs to the pot, breaking the meat up and working the dry herbs in with a bench knife or the edge of a spatula. Once the ground beef is cooked, drain if needed and then add the tomatoes, broth, beans, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Let soup simmer on low for at least 30 minutes and add the chopped greens just before ladling into bowls. Top with extra fresh chopped basil, lemon juice, olive oil drizzle, and parmesan cheese.

For the Parmesan Garlic Toast

• 4 Tbsp room temperature butter

• 1 garlic clove, minced

• 1/2 tsp parsley

• fresh parmesan cheese

Combine butter, minced garlic, and parsley in a small bowl. Set oven to Broil. Lay 8-10 slices of sourdough bread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Spread with garlic butter and sprinkle about 1 tsp of parmesan cheese over each piece of buttered bread. Move baking sheet into the oven and broil garlic bread for 2 minutes, or until golden and crispy.