Green Veggie Minestrone

I love to incorporate as many vegetables as I can into a meal. I like to ensure I am eating a variety of different vegetables and benefiting from their different vitamin and mineral profile. As someone who is a plant-based eater, veggies are at the core of my diet. Imagine how boring it would be if I ate the same vegetables day in and day out? Peppers, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, romaine and celery. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. The reality is many people do, they stick to what they know and don’t venture far from that. I am hoping to inspire you to branch out and try some new vegetables, in a more subtle way like this minestrone,

ingredients for green veggie minestrone

When I started getting local, organic produce delivered it really opened my eyes to the abundance of vegetables grown locally. There’s also something about eating seasonally that just feels right. My produce lasts longer, it's got a shorter trip from soil to my plate, and I’ve had the pleasure of experimenting with different vegetables. Celery Root has become a favourite of mine and is still a part of my local deliveries. It has a mild celery-like taste and isn’t as starchy as other root vegetables. It meshes well with many different flavours and goes nicely with the meatiness of lentils. Don’t be surprised if you see celery root (or Celeriac) popping up in some of the upcoming soup recipes.

Lentils, which is the real star of this dish, are one of my favourite plant-based proteins. They easily adapt to the flavours around them and have a meatiness to them. I used to eat lentils on the regular even before I adopted a plant-based diet - braised with double smoked bacon was my lentil dish of choice.

Lentils not only offer belly-filling finer but other vital nutrients like potassium, molybdenum, zinc, calcium, some b vitamins, protein, iron, copper and manganese.

My personal lentil preference is the French Lentil, they’re smaller than traditional green lentils. If you don’t typically eat a lot of legumes, I suggest you slowly begin incorporating them into your diet to avoid digestive upset. Another great trick is to add fresh ginger to dishes you are cooking that have beans and legumes in it. The ginger helps to breakdown the compounds in the beans (and legumes) minimizing the gas and bloating that can occur when your body is not used to beans.

Feel free to substitute some of your favourite green veggies into this dish.

Not a fan of zucchini? Add broccoli instead.

Not a fan of green peas, how about trying edamame?

Any dark leafy green can be used in this recipe as well as whatever stock you have on hand.

Avoid using water if you can - I don’t want this tasty dish to fall flat for you.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup dried Green Lentils

1 tbsp Grass-fed Butter

2 Leeks, whites & greens sliced

4 Cloves Garlic, chopped

1 medium celeriac (celery root), peeled and diced

4 small/ 2 medium Yellow Fleshed Potatoes, scrubbed & diced

8 cups vegetable broth

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 cup Kale, Spinach or Swiss Chard shredded

2 zucchini, diced

1 cup frozen sweet peas

1 tbsp chopped fresh sage

METHOD

Rinse the lentils and set aside.

In a large pot, over medium heat, melt the butter.

Add the leeks, garlic, celery root and potatoes.

Sauté for 5 minutes, season generously with salt and pepper.

Stir in the lentil followed by the broth, bring to a boil.

Reduce heat, cover the pot with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes.

(if making ahead stop here and continue when you're ready to serve)

Add in spinach, zucchini and frozen peas and continue simmering, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

Adjust seasoning and finish with lemon juice, zest and fresh sage.