Minestrone Monopoly

The other night I cooked Minestrone Soup from scratch. Two days before I asked around some tips on Minestrone soup and basically collated bits and bobs of the wonderful experience in cooking people shared.
The best tip was using celeriac, a seasonal vegetable also known as celery root or knob celery. It is cheap, wholesome and a good source of Vitamin B6, Magnesium and Potassium.


Vegan Slow Cook Minestrone Soup - Serves 4 (or 1 and some easy freezed dinners if you too fly solo)
(take note, no real measurements were used sorry)

1 - 2 cups of Vegetable stock (I had just over a dozen ice cubes prevously frozen)
2 - 3 cups of boiling water
1 400g can of butter beans
1 400g can of cannellini beans
1 400g can of borlotti beans
1/2 medium celeriac chopped
2 stalks of celery chopped
7 tiny potatoes chopped
4 cloves of crushed garlic
2 handfuls of chopped fresh parsley
salt to taste
1/2 cup of tiny soup pasta, vegan friendly, to serve 4

1. In a great large pot heat the vegetable stock. Lower the heat to simmer all three bean mixes and the boiling water.
2. Add the celeriac, celery and potatoes.
2. After roughly 30 minutes, add the the Fresh garlic, parsely and salt. Allow to cook for awhile and add more salt to taste if required.
3. Simmer on the stove, occasionally stirring for a minimum of 1.5 hours. At best, allow to go for 2 - 3 hours. Optionally add more boiling water during the cooking time if you prefer a 'watery' soup, as opposed to creamier.
4. 15 minutes before, make enough pasta for just this dining and garnish, serve with rye garlic bread and home grown parsley



The weekend recently gone, a few friends had a night in, including a hearty cooked Italian meal, vegan red wine and a loose game of monopoly. Decided to bake Vegan Oreo Chocolate Cupcakes from VCTOTW.
I jumped up in joy when my vegan girl and omnivore friends chowed those little moist suckers down in minutes.
I did in fact forget to take photos of the actual presentation cupcakes that they enjoyed, so when I got home found the half eaten 'tester' to photograph.