Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Minestrone with paprika and lemon juice



Sorry, but I just can't post a real recipe today. Forgive me.
On Monday I was hit by a bout of the stomach flu and am luckily on my way to recovery. Still, I don't really want to eat food, see food, smell food, cook food, write about food or even read about it. Hence, I cannot bring myself to post the recipe I had planned. All I can think about eating these days is warm and comforting soups and sour fruit like green apples and unripe plums. My figure has greatly benefited, if not my blog.

Here is a little soup that came together as a combination of my two yearnings: a chunky vegetable noodle soup with an extra ingredient, lemon juice. I thought I was being original but I later found out the Internet is teaming with recipes for minestrone with lemon juice. Who knew?

Ingredients
assorted vegetables
coarse salt
pepper corns
olive oil
fresh herbs
water
paprika
lemon juice
pasta

I chopped up all the left over vegetables I had in my fridge, from spring onions to carrots, tomatoes and lots of wilted celery. I cut them all up into big chunks and let them bubble away on the stove with water, coarse salt, pepper corns and olive oil. When the vegetables were soft and the liquid nice and aromatic, I added in plenty of sweet paprika and the juice from half a lemon, to give it a nice and sour twist. I also threw in a few handfuls of wilted herbs I had lying around, some dill and some coriander. Finally, I poured in a cup of pastina (smaller pasta for soups), but you can use larger kinds or break up spaghetti or several varieties and throw them in together. It is a great way to use up almost empty bags of pasta. Et voilà, a lovely minestrone with an extra punch of flavor.

By the way, I am still having problems leaving comments on Blogger blogs (mine included). Sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't. So just to let you know, I have been reading all your comments on my blog and your posts.

14 comments:

  1. Hi Fiona,

    Minestrone is probably the only thing I never eat. For some reason I just don't like it at all, but lemon in minestrone sounds original and creative to me! And your picture makes me almost doubt my prejudice against Minestrone in general...

    Anyway, something for you is waiting on my blog: http://cookingitalianinthemidwest.blogspot.com/2011/10/end-of-summer-risotto.html

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  2. Oh I hope you feel better soon! It's definitely getting ready to be flu season before we know it. Comforting soups like this one will hopefully have you well on your way to recovery =)

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  3. Oh I hope you feel better soon! It's definitely getting ready to be flu season before we know it. Comforting soups like this one will hopefully have you well on your way to recovery =)

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  4. Wish you a quick recovery and stick on the soups they really help with the flu. Love your minestrone soup, looks tasty.

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  5. that looks so spicy and yummt...

    farida
    http://kitchensuperfood.com

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  6. Fiona, I hope by now you are feeling much better! And if anything can help, this soup should! This is similar to my go-to winter recipe to keep us warm and cozy and healthy! Feel better!

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  7. Ohhh I hope you feel better soon... stomach bugs are the WORST!!!! :-((((

    Minestrone is one of my favourite soups... so comforting! And it always brings me back to my childhood and cold winter nights! :-)

    I have never added lemon juice, but I can easily imagine that it tasted great! :-)

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  8. Hope you're feeling better now! If anything could make me feel better, that lovely minestrone would :-)

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  9. Still having problems answering comments, but reading them all. Maybe I'll get lucky this time!

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  10. It worked! I guess the problem was with the word verification. Guess that will have to go, for now at least. Thank you all for your wishes, I am almost back to 100%.

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  11. hope you feel better; the soup is a good way to recover faster!

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  12. Oh Fiona, I hope you're feeling better soon! That's no good at all to have the stomach flu.

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  13. Hope you feel better soon! So weird that you crave sour fruit, that is the last thing I would eat when I'm sick: I go for simple carbs like boiled rice or potatoes and parmigiano.

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  14. It really looks delicious but the problem with it. It is that I don't like so much paprika but I will try it out without it.

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