Quick Minestrone Soup

This is a great soup for a cold weeknight evening with some fresh bread. It’s also a great way to use leftover veggies or rice. You can throw almost anything into it and it tastes great. I like to make it at the end of the week and throw in whatever we have left in the fridge.

This is what I put in it last night, but we didn't have any bread.  I usually have Daddy Rhino stop at a bakery on his way home but I thought I would attempt to make my own bread. I've never made bread before, and I didn't realize it had to rise 3 times. (I should have read the recipe a little more carefully.)  Oh, well. We'll get to enjoy it tonight. I also put in 2 cans of kidney beans, but that was a few too many beans for me.

I'm eating it now for lunch and it tastes even better the next day.

Quick Minestrone Soup

1 48 oz. bottle Vegetable Juice

½ onion, diced

3 celery stalks, sliced

3 carrots, sliced

1-2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 15oz. can kidney beans, rinsed

 1 cup cooked rice or ½ cup uncooked pasta

Sauté the onion, celery, and carrots in a large soup pot until starting to become tender about 10 minutes. Add the vegetable juice and seasonings and simmer for 10 minutes, then add the pasta if using and kidney beans and cook until the pasta is tender. If using cooked rice, simmer 20 minutes and then add the rice and beans and cook for 2-3 minutes.