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.
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.

What you need: 
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