Easy Minestrone Soup

 There is nothing like a hearty soup during the winter months. This thick minestrone soup is a meal in a bowl served with some crunchy bread sticks it will hit the spot,and better still you can whip this up in an hour or less.

What you need:

Really you can use just about whatever is in the vege crisper at the end of the week for this, it doesn't even matter what pasta you use. I only had shells and macaroni on hand so went with the shells. and what veges I had. This batch will feed about 6 people easy.

 4 rashers of bacon rind removed and diced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
3 carrots sliced
4 cloves of garlic chopped ( mine weren't huge).
salt and pepper to taste
2 oxo beef stock cubes
1x can red kidney beans drained and rinsed, or soak some overnight if you have dried ones.
1  and a 1/4 litres of water
about a teaspoon of mixed Italian herbs
1/2 a leek sliced  rinse well, or you could use onions
1 large tin of diced tomatoes
20g of butter
olive oil
fresh parsley
crunchy bread sticks
cooked pasta, about 4 cups. Don't over cook the pasta, you want it just under "al dente', because it will soak up a lot of the liquid when you add it to the soup.

What to do:

1. In a large pot add the bacon, carrots, potatoes, leeks, garlic butter and a splash of olive oil. Fry this off until it gets a bit of colour and the veges start to soften.
2. Crumble  the beef stock cubes over give it a stir and add 1 litre of the water. boil for about 5 minutes. By now the veges should be almost done.
3. Add the tomatoes, herbs and kidney beans and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Add the rest of the liquid if you need to
4.Add the cooked pasta, serve with the fresh parsley and bead sticks.

Easy Minestrone Soup