Minestrone Soup

Serves: 4
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 35 minutes
Calories*: 1200cal total (400cal per serve)

Ingredients
3 rashers of Bacon (optional)
2 Carrots
2 sticks of Celery
1 Potato
2 cloves of Garlic, crushed
1L Vegetable Stock
1 tin Red Kidney Beans
1 can Chopped Tomatoes
1/2-1 cup of Pasta
Parsley (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste (you won't need salt if you added bacon)

Add bacon, vegetables and garlic to pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes and stock, bring to boil and cook until vegetables stoft. If you have a pressure cooker you can speed up the cooking time here to about 30 minutes and the result is amazing!

Once vegetables are soft add pasta (I used 1 cup) and cook for a further 3-5 minutes until pasta is al dente. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with crusty bread.

Notes on Pressure Cookers:
A pressure cooker really speeds up the process with these types of meals and they're actually really easy to use. You must have a good amount of liquid for it to work properly which makes soups ideal.

Bring the ingredients to a boil, secure the pressure cooker lid and turn stove to medium. Wait until the indicators show the cooker is pressurised (refer your cookers instructions, mine is to the second line), then turn stove to low and cook for required time. The longer you cook the food the more likely the vegetables will turn to mush, so 30 minutes is good for a soup like this, but you can go longer if you want a pasta sauce for example.

Be careful when releasing the pressure from the cooker. Don't remove the lid straight away - allow the cooker to cool or run under cold water. Open the release and let all the steam escape. If you try to take off the lid too soon you may end up with the soup exploding over the counter (which happened to me lol) or worse, over you, so be patient getting that lid off!