Spring vegetable minestrone

It's been way too long since I've posted on Kevin Eats. I've made some wonderful meals and created some great new recipes over the past few months, I promise. My latest soup - spring vegetable minestrone - has motivated me to write another entry. I hope this re-ignites my desire to share what is happening in our kitchen more often.

I've made a lot of different soups and I'm very proud of my Italian heritage, so I'm kind of surprised that I had never tackled minestrone before today. To be honest, I usually choose "the other" soup on the menu when minestrone is offered which is why I'm very pleased with the one I made. It was extraordinary.

As always, I used my Dutch oven and sauteed onions and garlic with extra virgin olive oil. I added paprika (the key to the minestrone flavor), salt and pepper. Once the onions were translucent, I incorporated tomato paste followed by beef broth. While the soup was cooking, I diced a yellow squash, sugar snap peas, spinach, tomatoes and added it to the soup with a can of cannellini beans. I also used a lot of garlic and basil seasoning.

I constantly tasted the soup as it was cooking and added seasoning until it was just right. When served, it was topped with grated Parmesan cheese. Simply. Wonderful.

Ingredients:
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
4 tsp paprika
1 can tomato paste
1 box Trader Joe's Organic Beef Broth
1 yellow squash
4 oz. sugar snap peas, trimmed
1 tomato
2 oz. spinach
1 can Progresso cannellini beans
salt, pepper, garlic and basil seasoning to taste