"Will you make me soup?"

Awhile back, when we went out for dinner/putt putt with Sharon and Andy, Brett and I tasted a soup we REALLY liked. It was sort of a minestrone/pasta y fagioli thing.... Brett's been talking about wanting that again on and off the last couple of weeks, and the other night commented on how he really wanted it, and wondered if we could try to make it. Me? I was finally chilling out after a bunch of yard work the previous few days, and didn't feel like cooking. So it started off with him wondering what we had that might go in it, and looking online for soup recipes, and me suggesting which of our cookbooks he might look in as well.

And then I caved.

"Alright - I'll do it. But that means I get to put in some things you say you won't like! Deal!?"

What that means is...well...here - this is what I went and got from the garden:


That's lettuce up top (salad always goes good with soup, right?), and then on the cutting board, clockwise from top left, is flat-leaf parsley, a baby zucchini, an immature red onion, cutting celery (because we're out of celery, and we don't use it enough to buy it when I can use this stuff), some oregano sprigs, a couple baby summer squash, Niro di Toscano kale (first time I've grown this), rosemary, basil, and the other end of that red onion.

I started with cutting up and frying three strips of bacon. Once the bacon was crisp I set it aside and, in it's fat, sauteed onion, garlic, the squash and carrots. Once those were done I set them aside and fried up a pound of ground beef, and then added in the minced herbs, cutting celery, and kale you see above (excluding the basil). Added in some salt, pepper, and a dash of chili powder. Then I dumped back in the veggies, a box of chicken broth, a can each of chick peas and kidney beans, and a large can of "whole peeled plum tomatoes with basil" - plus all the juice from that can. This was all in the pressure cooker, so the lid went on and it cooked for quite awhile. While that was going, I boiled up a pot of shell pasta and cleaned up the lettuce for salad.


I have to say this stuff turned out REALLY good! The ONLY thing I wish I would've done differently was drained the fat from the beef (it honestly didn't LOOK like there was any - I think it stuck to the veggies). Oh, and maybe add more kale! ;-)