Amidst the threats of flash flooding and a particularly gloomy afternoon, it was decided that the best option for dinner would be homemade gluten-free vegan minestrone soup. As I scour the internet machine for recipes that would not take an eternity to make I am once again reminded of the easy of the Instant Pot. A one pot wonder that would make the creation of said Minestrone soup a reality in roughly 30 minutes. Maybe the creation of such a fall-inspired dinner will help to induce the suppressed rain clouds looming overhead.
I found a base of a recipe at one of my new favorite websites, https://minimalistbaker.com/, where one can find easy renditions of classic recipes, with the added dietary restrictions of vegan and gluten-free. I did modify the recipe a little bit to suit my household taste and desires.
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 white onion, diced
- 2 Tbsp minced Garlic
- 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
- Large handful of fresh green beans, trimmed, roughly chopped
- 1/4 tsp each sea salt & black pepper + more to taste
- The original recipe called for 1 small zucchini, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds; however, upon further inspection, I realized I purchased one small cucumber so we went with no zucchini this time.
- 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 small can of garlic tomato paste
- 1 box of organic vegetable broth
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
- 1 tsp Parsley
- Pinch red chili pepper flake
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 15-ounce garbanzo beans
- I box of gluten-free pasta
- 1 large handful of chopped kale (stalks removed)
Option topping – gluten-free crackers or tortilla chips are always a favorite in our house.
Instant Pot Directions – (for other cooking methods check original recipe here.)
Turn Instant pot to Saute – put the olive oil, onions, garlic in the pot. Stir frequently for a couple minutes. Then add the sliced carrots and green beans, salt and pepper. Cook for a few more minutes until the carrots have started to soften, this took about 3 minutes. Then add in the canned tomatoes, (zucchini if you purchased one instead of a cucumber), vegetable broth, oregano, basil, Italian seasoning, sugar, pepper flakes, parsley then stir. I also added in the tomato paste and the beans. Let cook on the saute function for a few more minutes until everything was nice and hot. Then I added the gluten-free pasta. I set the Instant Pot to ‘soup’ and reduced the time to 8 minutes. Let it cook while I chopped up the Kale. When the timer went off I slow released the steam, stirred the soup, added the kale and set it to ‘Soup’ for an additional 3 minutes.
Then let it cool for a few minutes and then we had amazing Minestrone soup perfect for a fall evening.
Escaping Crazy 