Butter Bean Minestrone

because we all need a little comfort.

Dec 06, 2024

∙ Paid

Hello and Happy Friday!

Hopefully the week after the holiday was smooth and stress free. If i’m being completely honest, this week was a tough one for me. Some things didn’t go the way I had envisioned. I had a day of bed rotting and wallowed in self pity (The grinch schedule was in full effect minus the jazzercise). I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, but throwing yourself a good ole fashioned pity party once in a while is also acceptable. Okay, I digress.

The weather here in the midwest has been COLD and WINDY, and for some of you it’s been very snow filled. So what better time to make a cozy comforting butter bean minestrone.

What makes minestrone, minestrone?

Minestrone is a hearty vegetable soup. It can consist of just about any vegetable combination imaginable mixed with beans and/or pasta. Typically speaking the usual beans used are kidney and cannellini beans, the traditional pasta shapes are usually ditalini or small shells.

Some say it requires the use of tomato- I personally disagree.

To break tradition and to throw my own spin on it I ditched the tomato component and used orecchiette along with some butter beans… because why not use the best bean and the best pasta shape in one soup?

Butter beans: are large and flat in size. They hold up well in stews and are creamy and buttery (hence the name). I used dry gigante beans (also known as greek giant butter beans) but you can save yourself some time by using canned.

A hearty broth starts with a good base like chicken stock. To maintain a meatless soup swap with vegetable broth.

Check out my homemade chicken stock recipe here!