Moreish Minestrone

I have this habit of making enough soup to feed an army. Last year, it was lentil soup and I should have probably stopped to ponder the "1 bag of lentils" part of the ingredients (what size bag, I don't know), but - being the impatient cook that I am - I threw in the bag I had and the result filled our freezer for months. Since then, we've discovered Gav's allergic to those too (I promise it wasn't my fault), so mom's famous recipe is sadly off the menu.

This November, I've somehow made a maxi version of minestrone by adding rice to the recipe I had in an old book of mine by Carla Capalbo, Italian: The best of Italy in 200 Traditional Recipes. Most minestrones have pasta added, but using brown round soup rice makes a heartier, more filling version.

Ingredients

1½ litres g-free stock

Olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 leek, finely sliced

2 carrots, diced

2 potatoes, diced

1 large courgette/zucchini, diced

3 buffalo tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 bay leaf

2 tsp dried thyme

1 cup brown round soup rice

Salt and pepper to taste

Sautée the garlic, onions, leeks, carrots, potato, zucchini, thyme and bay leaf and rice in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes. I add the rice now, in the same way you would a risotto, so it starts absorbing the flavours from the start. Add the tomatoes, beans and 1 litre of the stock and bring to the boil, then leave to simmer for an hour. Keep an eye on it to see how much the rice swells up. Add more stock if it's looking too thick. It's healthiness in a pot and you can freeze some for those nights when you can't be asked to cook.