Week 1 Saturday - Minestrone Soup & Garlic Bread

I have a real passion for Italian food and love travelling to Italy.  This recipe is an adaption of a Tuscan Minestrone soup that I was given by a friend.  It uses silverbeet which can often be a difficult vegetable to make kids eat and is packed with lots of other veges.

The garlic bread is my mother's recipe and is really simple and far superior that store-bought garlic bread.

MINESTRONE SOUP

INGREDIENTS
8 tbsp olive oil
400g tin cannellini beans
2 red onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 bunch silverbeet
2 courgettes, diced
1 cup savoy cabbage, sliced thinly
1 cup rice
2x 400g chopped tinned tomatoes
water

METHOD

1. Heat the olive oil over a medium heat in a large saucepan and fry the onion.  
2. Cut out white stalks of silverbeet and slice finely.  Add all the vegetables and sweat them until they become glossy.  
3. Add water until vegetables are completely covered.  Add tinned tomatoes and allow to simmer on low heat with the lid on.
4. Add rice and cover everything with boiling water.  Stir frequently and simmer for 15 minutes until rice is cooked.

GARLIC BREAD

INGREDIENTS

2 french sticks

200g butter

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 cup parsley, firmly packed

METHOD

1. Place butter in a bowl and soften in microwave for 10 seconds.
2. Using scissors, chop parsley in measuring jug until finely chopped.  (This is an easy method than trying to chop with a knife on a board and is easier to clean up!)
3. Add garlic and parsley to butter.  Mash with a fork.
4. Cut french sticks into approximately 8cm portions on an angle.  Do not cut all the way through to the base.
5. Butter garlic butter generously on one side of each cut portion.
6. Wrap sticks in garlic bread.
7. Bake at 180°C for 10 - 15 minutes (check that butter is melted and bread is golden but not too crunchy).