Minestrone with Parmesan Dumplings

We made it all the way through grilled cheese month! Dave and I started our finals this week so things are super stressful. The good news is that we're almost two thirds of the way done with grad school and in the fall neither of us has class on Friday -- hello road trips and three day weekends!

This soup is something that we put together because it wasn't to difficult to make while making a lot of servings for leftovers.

The recipe is from GFreeFoodie, I didn't use gluten-free ingredients to make the dumplings though.  

Ingredients:
Soup

-1 large can chopped/crushed tomatoes

-2 small cans tomato paste

-2 zucchini, chopped

-1 large red onion, chopped

-10 cloves garlic, minced

-2 tablespoons freshly minced parsley

-3 tablespoons freshly minced chives

-Tons of black pepper

-1 large bunch kale, sliced to ribbons

-6-8 baby carrots, chopped

-2 large ribs celery, chopped

-1/2 cup good quality olive oil

-1/2 cup bitey red wine (I used Carnivor)

-2 cans cannelini beans, well drained and rinsed (I dump them into a colander and rinse under the faucet)

-1 can garbanzo beans, see above

-1 red pepper, chopped

-8 oz mushrooms, chopped

-Handful frozen green beans, chopped

-1 tablespoon + more sea salt, to taste

-10 cups water

Dumplings

-1 1/3 cups flour

-3/4 teaspoon baking powder

-1/2 tsp. salt

-3 tablespoons, very cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

-1/3 cup parmesan cheese

-1/2 cup milk

In a large soup pot, add your olive oil. Over medium high heat, saute the garlic, onion, peppers, carrots and celery for 5 minutes.

Add zucchini and mushroom cook  3 minutes, until mushrooms begin to soften.

Add kale, stir, cook one minute.

Add your wine and turn heat to high for 2 minutes, then add water, tomatoes, tomato paste, beans including green, herbs, pepper, and salt, stir well, and bring to a simmer. 

Once the vegetables are tender, prepare the dumplings.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add in the butter using a fork to work the butter though the dry mixture until it resembles coarse sand.

Add in the milk and cheese.

Simmer for 20 minutes, covered
Add in the dumplings (about a tablespoon of dough at a time) to cook them in the soup.

Serve. 

Dave and I both really enjoyed this soup -- he wished that he could keep eating it with endless dumplings. The vegetables all went really well together and the broth itself was incredibly flavorful for being water based. I think the wine was a really good choice, it was a bitey red wine, but it had some nice notes. This is something that I will be making again.