Super Fast Minestrone Soup

One of my friends makes the best minestrone soup I have ever tasted, and she was kind enough to share her recipe with me. She makes the soup by simmering the vegetables in some vegetarian broth for more than an hour, before adding shell pasta and cooking for another 20 minutes or so. I love minestrone soup, but I am not the kind of person to labor over a stove for 90 minutes, plus the 20 minutes or so that it takes to chop the vegetables. Cooking gas is also at a premium in India and we need to conserve it. So here is how I make it. Like I've said before, my recipes are 20% effort, and 80% taste. My friend also adds celery to her minestrone soup, but I don't because my husband does not like celery. But feel free to add half-a-cup of chopped celery also if you like it. This is a pretty good soup, and is a meal in itself. I sometimes like to kid myself that I eat healthy, and this is the perfect soup for that because it is so light :)

Ingredients:

1. 1 small onion, chopped
2. 2 carrots, diced
3. 1 zucchini, diced
4. 1/2 cup green beans, chopped
5. 1 can stewed tomatoes, or 2 cups freshly diced tomatoes.
6. 1 tsp dried herbs (basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, oregano, whatever you like. I use oregano).
7. 1 cup shell pasta.
8. Salt and pepper to taste
9. Water as needed.

Method

1. Microwave all chopped vegetables, covered, for 5 minutes on high or until they are soft.
2. Microwave the tomatoes separately for 3 minutes until soft.
3. Meanwhile, cook the shell pasta according to the package instructions, which normally takes about 15-20 minutes.
4. Mix vegetables, herbs, cooked pasta, salt, pepper and water in a soup pan and bring to boil, typically 5-6 minutes.
5. If you added too much water and the soup looks too thin, just drain off some of the water and drink it, after you cool it, of course :)

Serve the soup hot with some salad.