Minestrone with Daikon and Dill
6 servings
40 minutes
The main thing in a decent minestrone is the amount of vegetables. Not in terms of weight, but in terms of the number of ingredients: the more, the better. After all, that's why they call it minestrone - "big soup". This recipe also includes daikon and dill, which are unusual for Italian cuisine
1
Peel the carrot, daikon, celery root, potato, red onion, and shallots. Cut off the top parts of the cauliflower florets and discard the rest. Trim the zucchini on four sides to a thickness of about seven millimeters, the insides will not be needed. Clean the bell pepper and cut out its core: mostly just the skin will be used.
- Carrot: 1 piece
- Daikon: 0.3 piece
- Celery root: 0.3 piece
- Potato: 1 piece
- Red onion: 0.5 head
- Shallots: 0.5 head
- Cauliflower: 100 g
- Zucchini: 1 piece
- Red sweet pepper: 0.5 piece
- Yellow bell pepper: 0.5 piece
2
Cut the daikon, carrot, celery root, potato, red onion, shallot, zucchini, and pepper into small cubes. All cubes should be approximately the same size for a beautiful soup. Cut the tops of the asparagus diagonally into half-centimeter thick ovals, and slice the green onion into rings. Halve the cherry tomatoes.
- Carrot: 1 piece
- Daikon: 0.3 piece
- Celery root: 0.3 piece
- Potato: 1 piece
- Red onion: 0.5 head
- Shallots: 0.5 head
- Zucchini: 1 piece
- Red sweet pepper: 0.5 piece
- Yellow bell pepper: 0.5 piece
- White asparagus: 2 stems
- Green asparagus: 2 stems
- Cherry tomatoes: 6 pieces
- Green onion feathers: 6 pieces
3
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot, add red onion and shallots, and sauté until soft and translucent. Add carrots, bay leaves, potatoes, and celery stalks. Slightly salt and sauté gently, stirring slowly.
- Olive oil: 2 tablespoons
- Red onion: 0.5 head
- Shallots: 0.5 head
- Carrot: 1 piece
- Bay leaf: 2 pieces
- Potato: 1 piece
- Celery stalk: 2 pieces
- Salt: to taste
4
Place the celery root. Pour in water just to cover the vegetables. Instead of water, it's preferable to use vegetable broth, like a simple version made from carrots, celery stalks, onions, and bay leaves. Boil for three minutes, add thyme, place in daikon, and add water to cover the vegetables again.
- Celery root: 0.3 piece
- Celery stalk: 2 pieces
- Bay leaf: 2 pieces
- Carrot: 1 piece
- Thyme: 10 g
- Daikon: 0.3 piece
5
In a separate pot, bring water to a boil and add red and yellow peppers for a minute. The pot should be separate so the peppers don't transfer their smell to the soup. Also, they shouldn't color the broth but should be presented only as colorful cubes, which is what's required. Drain the peppers in a sieve and add them to the soup. Add more water. In another pot, blanch the cauliflower.
6
After two minutes, once the pepper is added to the soup, add the drained cauliflower, zucchini, and asparagus. Remove the thyme. Then add more water to cover the vegetables. After that, cook the soup, stirring, for ten minutes.
7
Add green onions and cherry tomatoes. After half a minute, add two whole cloves of garlic for aroma, salt to taste, and then at the very end, pour in a tablespoon of olive oil. Another half a minute — and you can remove the pot from the heat.
8
Remove the bay leaf and garlic from the prepared soup so they don't interfere with anyone. Pour the soup into bowls. Garnish with fresh basil leaves on top, sprinkle with finely chopped dill — and call everyone to the table.