Healthy Minestrone Soup

Have you been checking out my recent recipes and recipe reviews from the Hairy Dieters book by the Hairy Bikers?

Today I have another lunch recipe for you.
Minestrone Soup

4 ripe tomatoes
2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
1 slender leek trimmed and finely sliced
2 medium courgettes, diced
1.5 litres of chicken stock
50g dry spaghetti
1 tbsp tomato puree
200g frozen peas
100g curly kale or green cabbage, thickly shredded
25g parmesan cheese, finely grated
fresh basil leaves to serve
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Prepare your vegetables.

Make a cross in the bottom of each tomato and put them in a heatproof bowl.

Pour over enough just boiled water to cover the tomatoes and leave for 1 minute. If the tomatoes are ripe enough, the skins should shrink back under the hot water. Drain and leave to cool.

Hmmm, the skins certainly didn't shrink back as much as I had expected, but I still managed to get the skins off just fine, so don't panic if yours look just like this.


Heat the oil in a large non-stick saucepan or saute pan and fry the onion very gently for 5 minutes until softened but not coloured, stirring often.

While the onion is cooking, slip the skins off the tomatoes and cut the flesh into quarters. Scoop out the seeds and chuck them out. Cut the tomato flesh into rough 1cm cubes.

Add the celery, garlic, leek and courgettes to the pan with the onion.

Stir over a low heat for a couple of minutes, then stir in the chopped tomatoes, pour over the chicken stock and bring to the boil.

Break the spaghetti into short lengths and drop them into the pan with the tomato puree.

Bring the soup back to the boil, then cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the peas, kale or cabbage and cook for another 5 minutes or until the pasta is just tender.



Season the soup with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan and torn basil leaves.

Results?  Delicious soup that was filling without bread and low cal enough that you could actually have two bowls and still be OK.  Just watch the size of the bowls and how much parmesan you put on.


I am really enjoying the recipes from the book, even if they don't all quite come out the way I expected, they are tasting delicious.

So far I have blogged about these recipes from the book:

• Chicken Korma
• Mint and Feta Omelette
• Spanish Chicken and Breakfast Fruit with Crumpets
• Tuna and Sweetcorn Pasta Salad
• Granola and Fruit Compote
• Masala Marinated Chicken
• Sweet and Sour Chicken

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.