My 3-year-old just told me I’m pissing him off. I’m definitely doing something wrong. As if four days of being Insta-silenced isn’t enraging enough. I think I’m officially done for the day.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that our Mondays are meatless. It’s cheaper, it’s veggie-loaded and it’s just an all-around awesome idea. One of our absolute favorite Meatless Monday meals come summer: Summer Minestrone.
I know what you’re thinking. Soup?? In Summer??? Yeah, that’s right. We love soup. So much so that we don’t give a rat’s patootie if it’s 100 degrees outside, we will eat it and we will eat it with gusto. Especially when said soup is brimming with summer garden goodies like fresh tomatoes, zucchini and yellow squash, and topped off with a big-ass dollop of homemade basil pesto. Sign. me. up.
Make it. Like now. It will become a family fave, guaranteed.
First, I heated up the olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat.
Then, I added the onion, hit it with a pinch of herbed sea salt, stirred it all around and sautéed for a few minutes.
Then, I stirred in the garlic, tomatoes, 1 tsp herbed sea salt and oregano and let all that mingle for a couple minutes. Added the broth, increased the heat to high and brought that mother to a boil.
In the meantime (a watched pot never boils, you know), I diced my zucchini and squash, and drained and rinsed the beans. When the broth was boiling, I stirred in the zucchini and squash and brought it back up to a boil. Then I reduced the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
During the last 15 minutes of cooking, I stirred in the beans. I scooped out a spoonful to taste it, and added herbed sea salt + black pepper as needed.
To serve, I ladled some soup into each bowl and topped off each one with a big-ass dollop of basil pesto (recipe here) and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
