Minestrone: Jidu Soup
As all kids living in New England know, if you play your cards right and wear your pajamas inside out, there’s high probability you’ll have a snow day.
And on those days, it was more than likely Jidu would be making his minestrone soup. Jidu was my neighbor’s grandfather, a retired Navy cook and all around wonderful guy. He was known to all the neighborhood kids as Jidu, or grandfather in Lebanese. On days I’m hoping for a snow day, I make this soup.
Thinking some za’atar pita chips might be a nice addition to the soup.
Ingredients: 1/4 medium onion finely chopped 1 teaspoon of butter 3 small red bliss potatoes 2-3 cartons of tomato soup like Pacific 1 cup veal stock or More Than Gourmet stock (optional) 2 cups V8 juice 3 large carrots chopped 1 small zucchini chopped fresh green beans chopped 2 bay leaves 1 package of baby kale 1 can Cannellini beans 1 can garbanzo beans 2 cups casarecci pasta, cooked Recipe: 1. Brown onion in butter at medium heat. Add potatoes. 2. Add tomato soup, V8 and veal stock. 3. Add carrots, zucchini, green beans, bay leaves. Cook on medium low heat for 20 min. 4. Add rinsed cannellini and garbanzo beans. And kale. 5. Boil water. Add 2 cups casarecci. Cook 7 min, until almost al dente. Add to soup. Serve with sprinkle of Parmigiano-Reggiano Note: Jidu made his own veal stock. This gives the soup a rich body. Veal stock itself may be difficult to find; I used a concentrate.
Slow Cooker Minestrone (Photo credit: lynn.gardner)
New American Kitchen 
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