Loaded with vegetables and plant powered fibre, my next twist on Jamie Oliver’s “10 recipes to save your life” is a Mexican Minestrone. It may be a soup, but trust me this is no starter!
As part of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, I was one of 10 people selected world-wide to put my spin on 10 of Jamie’s favourite staple recipes. This is #7, my twist on Jamie’s ‘Minestrone’
Health benefits
The massive variety of seasonal vegetables combined with black beans is enough to make this Mexican Minestrone a very healthy, fibre loaded meal. If you use a homemade bone broth for the stock, then you are going to derive even more nutrition from this minestrone. For more about the healing powers of bone broth, see here.
Take a look at the variations (below the main recipe) for suggestions to alter the recipe to suit many specific dietary requirements.
Mexican Minestrone
Ingredients
- 2 onion/s - diced
- 2 stick/s celery - finely sliced
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2 drop/s tabasco - to taste (optional)
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper - to taste
- 2 clove/s garlic - finely diced
- 2 carrot/s (large) finely diced
- 1 L stock or broth (chicken, beef or vegetable)
- 800 g diced tinned tomatoes (2 cans)
- 1 zucchini/s - diced
- 1 red capsicum/s (red pepper), diced
- 2 can black beans - drained and rinsed
- 60 g greens (spinach, kale, silver beet, chard) - whatever's in-season (2 cups approx.)
- ½ bunch fresh coriander leaves - to serve
Quick guacamole
- 1 avocado/s (large)
- 1 tbsp full-fat natural yoghurt
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper - to taste
- ½ lime/s (small) juice
Method
- In a large pot, add a splash of olive oil and sweat the onion and celery over a medium heat, covered for 5 minutes or until starting to soften.
- Add the paprika, cumin and sea salt and stir for a few minutes until you smell the spices.
- Add the optional tabasco, garlic and carrots and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Now add the stock and tomatoes and bring to a slow simmer.
- Add the zucchini, capsicum and black beans and simmer for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are just cooked. Taste and adjust the seasoning and spiciness.
- Make your guacamole by mashing your avocado and mixing through the yogurt, seasoning and lime juice.
- Lastly add the greens and cook until they are just wilted (only a few minutes).
Serve
- Serve immediately topped with a dollop of guacamole and fresh coriander leaves.
Make-ahead
- Re-heat in a pot over a low heat until just hot.
Store
- Store soup in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.
- Store guacomole in an airtight container (squueze over extra lime juice) in the fridge.
Variations
Veggie fussy kids
You can always puree part or all of the soup - out of sight out of mind works for many kids.Vegetarian and Vegan
Choose vegetable stock, omit the yoghurt from the guacamole.Legume-free
Omit the beans.Garlic and onion-free
Replace the onion with one small fennel bulb, finely chopped. Replace the garlic with a tsp of cumin powder and a pinch of chilli flakes.I'd love to hear how you like this Mexican Minestrone? Post a comment below and let me know.
Ali says
This was so easy to make and a hit with the whole family – even though they usually aren’t too happy when I try to make meat free dishes. Will definitely be making more this winter.
Georgia Harding says
Oh yay, my meat loving family are hard to please with meat-free meals too. Glad they enjoyed it Ali and thanks for the 5🌟 rating G x
Jac says
Delicious way to get loads of vegies and fibre into the day. Thank you.
Jac says
5 stars
Georgia Harding says
So glad you like it Jac, it is a really great plant based meal G x
Jessica Haight says
A very delicious soup. I packed some of the soup in a coffee thermos to keep my son and I warm at the park. It ended up being a comedy of errors as the soup was too chunky to pour out of the thermos. I ended up pureeing the soup and watering it down a little so that we could drink it from a cup. This will definitely be a regular meat free dish on our menu.
Georgia Harding says
Great adaptation, thanks for sharing Jessica G x
Ashley says
This was so delicious!! Super simple, budget friendly, full of goodness…what more could you ask for?! The guacamole definitely lifts the dish, it’s delicious. I added some macaroni pasta to mine too when I added the zucchini and capsicum. Will definitely be making this regularly!
Georgia Harding says
So glad you enjoyed it Ashley and thanks for the 5 🌟 rating G x
Cassandra Farbman says
Can you freeze this?
Georgia Harding says
Yes absolutely G x