Reconstructed minestrone

[petrea_mitchell]

Not quite my grandmother's minestrone recipe, but a reasonable approximation hacked together from a cookbook recipe and my own recollection.

1 cup 15-bean soup mix, soaked overnight
1 lb hamburger
6 cups medium-salt beef broth (because nothing else in this has noticeable amounts of salt)
1 14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 stick of celery, chopped
1 cup corn
1 cup green beans
1/2 cup uncooked macaroni
1/4 tsp dried minced garlic (equivalent to about 2 cloves)
1/4 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf
Several shakes of Parmesan cheese

This is my second time trying this recently, the first being when I first decided to start making soup for lunch. I was amused to discover when looking over the choices at the supermarket that broth is now getting rebranded as a health food, with one variety even going for the solid-black packaging which is the modern marketing way of communicating, "This here is a MANLY food."

Small improvements over last time: Getting the hamburger fully thawed before adding it made for more even chunks; using a different broth this time got me more flavor.

Comments

[delosharriman]

I bought some spiced ground beef which I might try in this application.