Slow-Cooker Minestrone
For one of our summer dinners with a vaguely Italian theme I wanted something new so I tried this Slow-Cooker Minestrone recipe. It didn't strike me as particularly summery but the result was so incredibly tasty that it didn't matter. I like its easy expandability. I'll write it more or less the way I made it, adapted from Beth Hensperger's Not Your Mother's Slow-Cooker Cookbook (Boston : The Harvard Commons Press, 2005).
—– Slow-Cooker Minestrone —–
- few tablespoons olive oil
- medium yellow-onion, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 2 zucchini, sliced in half-moons
- 1 yellow squash, sliced in half-moons
- 1, 15-oz can green beans
- 1, 15-oz can red kidney beans, rinsed, drained, half the beans mashed
- 1 bay leaf
- 1, 28-oz can Italian-style chopped tomatoes, with their juice
- 2.5 cups chicken broth
- 0.5 cup dry red wine
- 0.3 cup little pasta (optional, since I didn't used it)
- In large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the onion, celery, zucchini, and squash as you chop them. Cook until they start to turn transparent. Put in the slow cooker.
- Add to the slow cooker the beans, bay leaf, tomatoes with juice, wine, and broth. Add enough water to cover all by about 2 cm.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours. If using the pasta, add it during the last half hour of cooking time.