Minestrone Soup

One of my Sydney colleagues, Terry, recently told me about a fabulous soup that he used to buy called Dr Tickell's 12 Vegetable Soup. Terry is gutted because he doesn't seem to be able to buy it anymore, and in his words, it is "addictive". However, there is one small ray of hope in that Dr Tickell has published the recipe for the 12 vegetable minestrone version of his soup here.

Terry challenged me to make this soup and see for myself, so, never being able to resist a challenge, I did make it. And boy, was I pleasantly surprised! I am not the kind of girl who would normally buy vegetable soup (I am a hearty beef girl myself), but this soup was delicious!!!!! It is also very filling, so unlike many purchased canned soups, a serve with a couple of slices of bread or toast is very satisfying. Finally, it is also - OMG - healthy!!!

Here are the veges beforehand:

and in the pot in the early stages:

and the final product:

This soup is very easy to make, with the most arduous part being all of the peeling and chopping beforehand. The recipe makes stacks of soup (approximately 2.5 litres), and is the kind of thing that you can refrigerate or freeze (?) for a quick "pick me up". I'm pretty sure that my version of this soup looks nothing like the canned version, but I am very happy with it.

Thanks for the tip Terry - good luck with making your own.