Could you use a nice, comforting bowl of soup right now? I know I could. I spent the last three weekends — three! — traveling and the end result of six plane rides, two hotel stays, several early mornings and too many late nights is that I’m sick. I have an awful chest cold and cough and basically sound like a Brontë sister. Hack, cough, hack, swoon.

Two things feel nice on my throat right now: hot liquids and very cold foods. So, yesterday, while I waited at the Austin airport for my flight home, I actually went and bought myself a dish of coffee ice cream with chocolate sprinkles. (The sprinkles didn’t help my throat any, but they sure were fun.) Is the sight of a middle-aged woman eating ice cream at 1 pm in an airport by herself weird? If so, I was keeping Austin weird.

Besides ice cream, I have also been indulging in a lot of tea and soup. Soup is really the best possible thing to eat when you’re sick because it is comforting, soothing and nourishing all at the same time. It’s hard to get motivated to eat when you’re sick and can’t taste anything anyway because you’re so congested. But if you don’t eat, you’ll only feel worse. So soup is the way to go. The warm broth feels like a balm on my sore throat.

This minestrone-style soup is full of seasonal vegetables like carrots, peppers and zucchini. With the addition of some pantry staples like chicken broth and canned beans, it becomes a complete, easy-to-throw-together meal that will satisfy your very soul on a chilly fall night. Add some crusty bread on the side for a real treat. Or, if you don’t have bread, you can always add small pasta or rice to the soup.

A delicious vegetable soup like this one is a recipe that you can fit in around everything else in your life. Make it when you have time and let it simmer until you’re ready to eat. If dinner is delayed by a late soccer practice or missed train? Just let the soup simmer a little longer – it will only taste that much better. Best of all, you are pretty much guaranteed leftovers for the next day. As someone who works from home, I always want a recipe to make enough for leftovers.

So tie on your best apron and get chopping. This vegetable soup isn’t going to make itself! But with a small amount of work, it can be your Meatless Monday dinner tonight.

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  Yum

  Homemade Minestrone

  Ingredients

  • 2 TB extra virgin olive oil (plus more for drizzling)
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 2 carrots, peeled and diced
  • 3 ribs celery, trimmed and diced
  • 1 red pepper, cored and diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 TB tomato paste
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • Pinch red pepper flakes
  • 28 oz can whole tomatoes
  • 1 TB sugar
  • 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • Parmesan rind (optional)
  • 1 zucchini, diced
  • 15 oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Grated Parmesan cheese

  Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium heat.
  2. Add the onions, carrots and celery and sauté until tender, about ten minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary so that the vegetable do not brown.
  3. Add the red pepper and garlic and sauté an additional five minutes.
  4. Add the tomato paste, oregano and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté a few additional minutes until fragrant.
  5. Add the tomatoes with their juice and the sugar and bring mixture to a boil, crushing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon to break them up.
  6. Turn down heat and simmer until thickened, about ten minutes.
  7. Add the chicken broth and a Parmesan rind, if using, and return to a boil.
  8. Turn heat down and simmer.
  9. About twenty minutes before you want to serve the soup, add the zucchini and cannellini beans. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.
  10. To serve, garnish each bowl with a drizzle of fruity extra virgin olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.

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