Super Simple Garden Recipes: Minestrone Verde

Adapted from Cooking Light, June 2017 (serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon pesto or 1 cube previously frozen pesto (or more depending on your pesto preferences)

• 1-2 cups thinly sliced leeks

• 2 small summer squash, sliced into half moons

• 1-3 cups dark leafy greens of your choice, like kale, chard, spinach, mizuna, etc.)

• 1 cup frozen green peas or fresh shelling peas from your garden (optional)

• 1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

• 4 cups chicken stock

• 8 oz tortellini (cheese, spinach or a combo)

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• salt and pepper to taste

• (Optional for omnivores) 1-2 diced grilled chicken sausages

No, that isn’t Nancy’s yogurt. It is homemade chicken broth that was in our chest freezer from chickens we’d roasted back in February. We also didn’t use all of those summer squash either, but prepped all of the squash we had to add to meals later in the week. We’ll likely sauté them and enjoy them with leftover tortellini (we made 2 packages: 1 cheese and 1 spinach and saved half for later), which we will mix up with some cherry tomato sauce and some of the extra thawed pesto for a super quick and easy meal.

Another time saving food prep tip: chop up extra kale (if that’s your leafy green of choice for this recipe) and keep it in a container in the fridge to easily throw into meals within the next few days.

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring until softened (about 6 minutes).

2. Add zucchini and cook, stirring until just tender (about 4 minutes).

3. Add chicken stock and increase heat to medium-high. Bring to boil and then reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 8 minutes.

4. Make pesto or thaw frozen pesto.

5. Cook tortellini in a medium pot of boiling water.

6. Add tortellini, peas, sausage, and dark leafy greens and cook until the greens are wilted and bright green. Add more broth or some water if you’d prefer more liquid in your soup.

7. Stir in lemon juice and salt.

8. Carefully ladle into bowls and top each serving with pesto and sprinkle with pepper!