Home-Style Minestrone Soup in Pressure Cooker & Garlic Cheese Disks

Kitchen Equipments Required

Chopping board, knife, pressure cooker with its lid and weight/whistle, stirring spoon, hand blender or regular blender.

Ingredients

Onions – 1/2 cup, finely chopped

Garlic – 3 big cloves, finely chopped

Carrots – 1/2 cup, finely chopped

Zuchhini – 1 small, finely chopped

Tomatoes – 3 large or 400 gms, finely chopped

Spinach – handful, roughly chopped

Red Kidney Beans & Canellini Beans – 1 cup mixed and boiled soft. You may use just 1 kind of beans too. Garbanzo or chickpeas can be used as well. I used canned beans and washed them well under running water for about 1 minute.

Water – 4&1/2 cups. You may use vegetable low sodium Broth also.

Macaroni Pasta – 2 cups, cooked al Dante

Parmesan Cheese – for garnish, optional

Oils & Spices

Olive Oil – 1&1/2 tbsp

Basil –  8 to 10 leaves fresh or 1 tsp dry

Oregano – 1 tsp, dry

Black pepper, freshly crushed – 1/2 tsp

Salt – 1&1/2 tsp or to taste

Method

1. Heat olive oil in the pressure cooker. Lower the flame and then add chopped garlic and onions. Sauté till onions are slightly soft and translucent, about 3 minutes.
2. Add chopped carrots and sauté for 2 minutes.
3. Now add zucchini, tomatoes, Spinach, fresh basil leaves, oregano, salt, pepper and beans along with water in the pressure cooker.
4. Give it a stir. Put the lid of the pressure cooker on. Close it and put the weight/whistle of the pressure cooker.
5. Increase the flame to high. Cook for 2 whistles on the high flame. Switch off the gas stove. Set the pressure cooker aside.
6. Let the pressure of the cooker release on its own. Now open the pressure cooker. Let sit for 5 minutes.
7. Take the hand blender and blitz through the soup/stew 4 times. Make sure to stand behind so that te hot soup doesn’t spill on you. Be careful.
8. The home style minestrone soup in pressure cooker is ready to be served.

Serving Suggestion

1. Take a soup bowl. Add 1/3 cup of al Dante pasta to it first in the center.
2. Now ladle about 2/3 to 1 cup of stew to the bowl. Garnish with some torn basil leaves and Parmesan cheese if desired.
3. Serve it warm with Garlic Cheese Discs on the Side.

Notes

1. Keep the size of all the chopped vegetables same.
2. You may add squash, broad green beans and peas also, if required.
3. Always cook pasta al Dante, which means slightly uncooked. If you will boil pasta to mush consistency, then it will become texture less with soup under more heat.
4. Always add pasta towards the end in the serving bowl. If you will add all the cooked pasta to the soup, it will absorb all of the soup and it won’t be soup anymore but a messy pasta dish, which still will be tasty but not appealing. 🙂
5. To make it restaurant style, add 1/2 cup of tomato purée also while cooking and adjust the salt etc.
6. If you do not want to use the pressure cooker, make it in a pan or even slow cooker or crockpot. Adjust the water, spices and time accordingly. For open pan, you need more water (about 6 cups). For crock pot and slow cooker, you need less water ( about 3 cups).
7. You may make batches and freeze this soup.
8. It is filling and really nutritious as is with out the addition of pasta and makes an excellent choice for weight watchers and diabetics.

Kitchen Equipments Required

a microwave safe bowl, a pastry brush or butter knife, a 3 inch cookie cutter or use a sharp edges bowl to cut discs, baking tray, oven, chopping board.

Ingredients

Bread Slices – 8 to 10. I used whole grain. You may use any kind that is handy.

Butter – 1&1/2 tbsp

Garlic cloves – 2 big, minced or grated fine

Basil – a pinch, dry

Black pepper – a pinch

Salt – a pinch

Mozarella Cheese – 2 tbsp, shredded

Method

1. Preheat the oven at 400*F / 190*C.
2. Take a microwave safe bowl. Add butter, minced garlic, salt, pepper and dry basil to butter. Microwave it covered for 10-15 seconds just to loosen it up. Set aside.
3. Keep one Bread slice on chopping board. Cut out a circle with the help of a cookie cutter of bowl.
4. Spread about 1/4 tsp or more butter mix on the slice. Sprinkle with some mozzarella and set on the baking tray.
5. Finish the other bread slices like wise.
6. Bake it in the oven for 7-9 minutes till golden brown, on middle shelf of the oven. If your oven is small or OTG, use grill option and grill till slightly golden on the edges and the top.
7. Delicious Garlic Cheese Discs are ready to be served.

Notes –

1. Please DO NOT TRASH the left over bread sides. Leave them out on the counter in a tray and let them air dry or put them in cooling oven. Once dried, crush them and store. Use as bread crumbs when and as required.
2. These are excellent as is as a starter or finger food for game nights or get togethers. You may shape these as you want!