not so simple to explain minestrone soup

Simple minestrone soup answers it all I’ve mostly lived alone for approaching twenty-five years, during that time I have had countless lodgers, some for only a couple of months others for a couple of years, one friend who was lodging with me recently said he loves it when I make minestrone soup, so much so that he had given his mum a bowl to taste, she loved it also and asked for my recipe? This wasn’t as simple as it sounds, I explained to him due to the fact the recipe I had written down in my book of recipes was thirty-five years out of date! and nowadays only a guideline, the question of how could a recipe be thirty-five years out of date isn’t easily summarised! I explained that the recipe in that book that I hadn’t written down was originally given to me by a friend, when I was a young married mand in my twenties my wife and I used to have monthly dinner parties with our friends Paul and Cheryl, we would take month around being the cooks, this was originally Pauls recipe I loved his soup so much that I asked for the recipe This I decided would be a good example to showcase the myth of personal choice and dietary habits, the kenny that asked for that soup recipe from Paul no longer exists, I am still here in body of course; yet, I am so dramatically changed as a human since then, I have changed as much as the minestrone soup and its recipe has! Humans are social omnivores this means in general that we eat what our family and community eats, I personally am very adventurous with my food most people like to think they are also, some readily admit they don’t like trying new stuff they like to stick with what they know, I am extremely rare in how adventurous I am in my diet, to an extent that I go through months doing dietary experiments on myself, for example one month I pledged to try a different foraged food every day for a full month I chose July and it was great fun, other experiments like going dairy free for a month led to me never going back to eating dairy, this shows how much this recipe has changed along with this human? I decided I would rewrite the recipe along with the reasons for changes, no two pots of this soup are ever the same for me these days, unlike the original recipe which at the beginning I stuck to religiously for fear of ruining a whole pot of soup by adding too much or too little of anything, there is a lot of politics and nutritional information in the making of this soup that I feel is worth the telling Minestrone soups history The recipe for this soup is obviously much longer than my thirty-five-year history with it, I wanted to find out the recipe and words for its history, some of the earliest origins of minestrone soup pre-date the expansion of the Latin tribes of Rome into what became the Roman Kingdom (later Roman Republic and Empire), when the local diet was "vegetarian by necessity" and consisted mostly of vegetables, During this time, the main dish of a meal would have been pulte, a simple but filling porridge of spelt flour cooked in salt water, to which whatever vegetables that were available would have been added. It was not until the 2nd century B.C., when Rome had conquered Italy and monopolized the commercial and road networks, that a huge diversity of products flooded the capital and began to change their diet, and by association, the diet of Italy, most notably with the more frequent inclusion of meats, including as a stock for soups. Spelt flour was then removed from soups, as bread had been introduced into the Roman diet by the Greeks, and pulte became a meal largely for the poor. The ancient Romans recognized the health benefits of a simple or "frugal" diet (from the Latin fruges, the common name given to cereals, vegetables and legumes) and thick vegetable soups and vegetables remained a staple.

An ancient roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria described polus, a Roman soup dating back to 30 AD made up of wheat grains chickpeas, fava beans, onions, garlic, lard, and greens thrown in. As eating habits and ingredients changed in Italy, so did minestrone. Some recipe updates later came with fancy trimmings such as cooked brains! and wine. The introduction of tomatoes and potatoes from the Americas in the mid-16th century changed the soup by making available two ingredients which have since become staples. But the tradition of not losing rural roots continues today, as minestrone is now known in Italy as belonging to the style of cooking called "cucina povera" (literally "poor kitchen") meaning dishes that have rustic, rural roots, as opposed to "cucina nobile" or the cooking style of the aristocracy and noble The difference between a chef and a cook is that a chef creates; a cook follows instructions, I was once a cook now I create something new every day, the history you’ve just read shows, there is no set recipe for minestrone, since it can usually be made out of whatever vegetables are at your disposal.

This recipe listed below is what Paul gave me years ago, that I (to begin with) would stick to strictly! • 2 pints of chicken stock • 1tin of Heinz beans • 2tablespoonfulls of oil • 2 medium onions • 2cloves of garlic • 2 bacon rashers • 2 sticks of celery • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes • 2medium carrots • Salt and pepper • 50gram of soup pasta (small) • 150gram of cabbage heart • One or Two tablespoons of tomato puree • Parmesan for the top once served Below I shall put the same recipe and write what’s changed in my thirty-five years with this recipe for me • 2 pints of chicken stock – I no longer buy meat poultry or fish stock, there is plenty great alternative veg stocks and bullions, I get organic low salt types • 1tin of Heinz beans – Heinz beans taste great due to the high sugar content, I try not use refined sugars in my recipes or home coking of any kind, i dont even have refined sugar in my home, A recipe I read once claimed that the base of minestrone is bean broth, and that borlotti beans (also called Roman beans) are the beans to use for genuine minestrone I still sometimes add a tin of borlotti beans, in general though I much prefer to soak some dried borlotti beans overnight, (sometimes butter beans also) • 2 tablespoonfulls of oil – I rarely use oils in soups or anything cooked at high temperature, as the fats in oil change in a bad way at high temperatures • 2 medium onions – lots of finely chopped onion is great as with all my fruit and veg these days I try my best to get local organic, or even better grow my own, • 2 cloves of garlic – yep, its Italian it needs a bit of garlic • 2 bacon rashers - I no longer eat mammals at one stage I did add some chicken (it was psychological) it wouldn’t cross my mind nowadays • 2 sticks of celery – personally I think celery is the mainstay of this soup it needs the celery, in the days when I stuck to two stalks, I ended up with food waste as the celery went all floppy quickly in my fridge, due to my dislike of food waste I ended up putting a whole celery in big pans of soup the bigger the better! The secret to this is chop up the celery very fine most people don’t like big chunks of celery in their soup, I’ve later been told that you can put floppy celery in a bowl of water and it will go firm again! I have yet to try this revelation? • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes – I sometimes get amazed at how cheaply you can buy a tin of tomatoes from the shops, there was a time I loved this cheapness, I now know if its that cheap for me either someone else or the planet is paying the real price, for a while Tesco’s done a range of organic tomatoes in tetras packs, I really liked those as they stored better in your cupboard and I felt they must be more environmentally friendly than cans? These days I am more likely to chop up a pack of tomatoes and throw in a jar of passata, I also these days regularly buy Kallo (an excellent ethical brand also you’re not shipping water around the world) tomato and herb stock cubes • 2medium carrots – I grate a couple in but also like a wee bit of a chopped carrot, two would never be enough these days I eat them raw as I am grating them, I probably eat two while I am cooking, also I throw in any other veg that’s in my fridge needing used up, soup is a great way to save food waste; also the more variety of veg the better the soup • Salt and pepper – I haven’t had any table salt in my home for about twenty years! you don’t need it; I do love black pepper though nearly all my soups get a teaspoon of pepper heaped if it’s a big pot level if not! • 50gram of soup pasta (small) – in the beginning I bought a sort of small macaroni specifically for making this soup, these days I always buy wholegrain, if I have big pasta floating about the kitchen, then I break it into smaller bits to throw in • 150gram of cabbage heart – again this used to leave me wondering what to do with the left-over cabbage? These days I never weigh anything for this soup. I also don’t just stick to cabbage heart, I will use any type sometimes kale, I’ve even used a bag of sprouts quartered instead of cabbage • One or Two tablespoons of tomato puree - see tomato section • Parmesan for the top once served – I haven’t done dairy for approaching three years, but even prior to that; I rarely bothered with the hassle of adding cheese into soup, your just adding fat to something healthy. There was a time I would go all fancy and put a slice of toasted garlic Baquet on the finished bowl cover that in cheese and grill it before serving (it looked fancy) • The original recipe paul gave me never mentioned herbs, over the years I have added various herbs to this soup, these days I tend to throw in a tablespoon of mixed Italian herbs, then once the soup is ready to be served - I take my scissors into the garden for some parsley or basil or coriander even chives if I have them, something fresh and raw for a garnish out the garden, delicious and nutritious • Also not mentioned in the original recipe was bread! Thirty-five years ago, I would have thought soup without bread was lacking something? And that bread would have been buttered, I was socially conditioned to look for bread with soup, I have no idea how many loafs of bread my mother must have bought for her family of seven plus herself and dad while I grew up? It must have been a lot! To this day when you order a bowl of soup when out, it nearly always comes with bread and usually some butter, it’s been a long journey for me from requiring my daily bread the whiter the better to begin with, these days I rarely buy bread for home if I do? Yeh, you guessed it! wholegrain organic with as much thrown in goodness as possible (olive breads are nice for example) • One last thing! the bigger the pot and the more variety the tastier the soup, this is problematic when you live alone? I love a great big pot of soup but it’s made for sharing, when I have no-one to share it with, I need to eat it for breakfast lunch dinner and supper (I hate freezing anything) my dream would be to find a group of people locally that we could take a night each feeding each other! That would save on food waste, electricity(gas), personal time - preparing and cooking a meal everyday for one person is a poor piece of time management, not to mention a bit sad! My search for a group of people like that is a hard one due to being meat and dairy free, nearly all of my friends and family wouldn’t even know what to feed me! and that sadly includes my mother

That about sums up my life’s journey of cooking and eating in what should really be a simple recipe! Turns out my life’s not so simple and neither is this soup, how simple you want your life is probably summed up in your soup? My journeys not perfect (yet is anyone’s) I am only human on occasion I can slip into the easy cheap options, I’ve only touched on the subjects of packaging, psychology, fair trade, food waste, industrial farming, animal products, food miles, all of these things and more have a big impact on how I make this soup, and other meals there’s no need for me to go into detail on that, the only thing I would ask is to ask yourself; how would you make yours and why?

One pot dinner? - Living on your own makes you self-reliant making a big pot of soup as stated earlier can result in either waste or sickening yourself with the same meal three to four times a day for a couple of days, there is an alternative, tins of minestrone (or any other soup for that matter) tonight I took my little tin soup pan and fried up mushrooms garlic courgettes, spring onions, sweetcorn, and cherry tomatoes (salad left overs), I added to this some ground dried celery, some Italian herbs and black pepper, once cooked I put in a cheap tin of minestrone soup (43P a tin), it was delicious Remember what I said at the beginning, we are all social omnivores we are choosing nothing! That includes me and my diet, once you come to an acceptance of that its easier to be a bit more adventurous with your diet, lets break out of those cages chickens and become free range human beings Guinee pig K 10CC are correct life is a minestrone - I'm dancing on the White House lawn Sipping tea by the Taj Mahal at dawn Hanging 'round the gardens of Babylon Minnie Mouse has got it all sewn up (Come on, Pluto!) She gets more fan mail than the Pope (Own up, own up) She takes the Mickey out of all my phobias Like signing cheques to ward off double pneumonia [Chorus] Life is a minestrone Served up with parmesan cheese Death is a cold lasagne Suspended in deep freeze [Verse 2] I'm leaning on the Tower of Pisa Had an eyeful of the tower in France I'm hanging 'round the gardens of Madison The seat of learning and the flush of success Relieves a constipated mind I'm like a gourmet in a skid row diner A fitting menu for a dilettante [Chorus] Life is a minestrone Served up with parmesan cheese Death is a cold lasagne (Baby) Suspended in deep freeze Love is the fire of flaming brandy Upon a crêpe suzette Let's get this romance cooking, honey But let us not forget [Chorus] Life is a minestrone Served up with parmesan cheese Death is a cold lasagne (Baby) Suspended in deep freeze [Bridge] Love is the fire of flaming brandy Upon a crêpe suzette Let's get this romance cooking, honey But let us not forget Mine-mine-mine-minestrone