Winter Minestrone With Cabbage Pesto Recipe (2024)

1/2 cup of olive oil to sauté the veggies???? Really? A quarter cup was fine. Particularly given the pesto topper.

Step 3 says "Next add 4 cups of sliced cabbage" so I guess the pesto gets the rest of the 1/2 cabbage. Since cabbages come in all sizes it would be more helpful if it said how much to use for the pesto.

I make a similar minestrone, using all the fresh veggies available, and serve it with traditional basil pesto. Minestrone alla Genovese!

Made this as written. The carmelized onions and veggies really bring the flavor and complexity.

To bump up the protein in this vegetarian soup, I'm swapping in tiny cubes of high-protein extra firm tofu for the pasta.

Yes!! This is my go-to winter soup. The first step of caramelizing the onion/carrot/celery mix is key and one that takes a little patience!! I love using fire roasted canned tomato’s for this recipe. I also use chick peas or white beans instead of black beans. And for the non-vegetarians in the household sometimes I will make some small meatballs on the side that can be added to the soup. Top with Parmesan cheese and a nice crusty bread ….. YUM!!!!

Dang, this is good! I used good old green cabbage.

I read this recipe over a number of times and in step 6, the instructions say to use “remaining sliced cabbage”, remaining from what? About how much is needed for the pesto?

I recently made Marcella Hazan’s Minestrone from The Classic Italian Cookbook, and she does, in fact, begin with 1/2 cup olive oil (plus 3Tbsp. butter!) to sauté the vegetables. She also adds potatoes, zucchini and green beans prior to the cabbage, and throws in a parmesan cheese crust, which I highly recommend. I deviated slightly by adding preserved lemon paste (2 Tbsp.) and a Tbsp. of harissa. All in all it was delicious.

Why drain the tomatoes? Can the liquid be used later with the stock and water? Are the beans really not cooked a bit, maybe before the orzo and spinach are added? Thanks.

A common emergency meal in my house is canned minestrone enlivened by whatever dabs are in the fridge ... cooked pasta, an anchovy filet, bit of leftover veggies. Some parsley flakes 'freshen' canned soups, and a dash of green Tabasco 'brightens' it. I let it sit together so the flavors can 'get married.'

(Warning: substitutions ahead) This is delicious! I added some already cooked grains (rye berries) rather than pasta which made it thicker and chewy, and cooked chick peas because that's what I had. Added anchovies as someone suggested as well as lemon zest and lemon juice at the end to brighten it up. A little parmesan on top and pesto from a jar. Caramelizing the onions and celery is key to getting a tasty broth. And less water made it more like a stew. Yum.

This looks delicious, but for the black beans. It reminded me of chili. Black beans have a very distinctive flavor. I will try the recipe but use my usual cannellini or cranberry beans. They are creamier...

Had some issues with the recipe, and in that for us, half a savoy cabbage *was* 4 cups, so had to guess what “the remainder” might have been. Used white beans, and sautéed the 4 cups of cabbage along with the other veggies in 1/4 cup oil. And we love the results! Oh, so delicious!

Add anchovies and lemon zest, juice

Terrific recipe! I used 1/3 cup oil in the soup which is way more than I usually would and am glad I did, the oil really adds to the dish. I do think it is crucial to the recipe to know how much cabbage to put in the pesto. I had no guidance whatsoever since cabbages vary greatly in size. As a result my pesto was too cabbagey. Will do less next time.

This was delicious! I didn't have enough spinach and supplemented with Tuscan Kale. And I used garlic confit instead of raw garlic cloves. Because we have a nut allergy in the house, we used raw sunflower seeds in place of pine nuts. The whole family loved it.

I could only find regular green cabbage at the store, and slicing half of it gave me 4 cups of cabbage. I threw that into the soup and put the other half of the cabbage into the pesto, and literally ended up with a MIXING BOWL of pesto!! Ha! I added some basil and lemon juice to make it yummier.

Added lots more broth. Otherwise it is more of a stew and not a soup.The pesto was confusing. It did not seem to add to the dish. What was it supposed to do?

yes, use the 1/2 cup of oil (or a third). it’s obviously a different technique to braise the vegetables for 25 minutes in it until caramelised - adds lots of depth to the dish instead of just frying the vegetables in a tablespoon.

Soup was delicious but Not clear on the cabbage direction for the pesto. How many cups of cabbage go into the pesto?

Like most Ottolenghi recipes, this is a project. Unlike most Ottolenghi recipes, however, this isn't wonderful. I used Israeli cous cous instead of orzo as that's what I had. Otherwise, followed recipe. I felt it needed more seasoning; the small amount of rosemary was lost after all that cooking. The cabbage pesto was a "no" for me. The taste was fine, but it looked like a bowl of vomit. Added some lemon to soup which perked it up. Overall, the soup was fine but not great. Won't repeat.

I made this the day one of the groups on the daily Connections puzzle was "stock - pasta - beans - vegetables"! Having just reviewed the recipe helped me score perfect that day.

Incredible. Reduced oil to do the veggies. Excellent flavor, well balanced and complex.And then I ruined it by putting in the whole box of orzo instead of the half cup. Don’t be me! Read the quantities! (It turned out ok with some added broth but I am sad.)

Has anyone tried to freeze this? I'm guessing that might not work with the pasta in it...

The list of Ingredients does not list the additional 3-1/4 cups of water that is mentioned in Step 3, and no one else has mentioned it, so I’ll go ahead and add it and see what happens! But I suggest this be corrected so that the first time cook of this recipe isn’t worried!

I made this recipe as written. I loved that all the ingredients are seasonal for winter and the soup was so flavorful. I would add twice the amount of beans next time for heartier fare, and would try white cannellini beans instead of black beans. The added pesto cooled the soup down too much for my taste and i didn't enjoy the contrast between the fresh and cooked savoy cabbage. HOWEVER, the pesto is a delightful addition to tacos, so it isn't going to waste in my kitchen!

We really liked this minestrone, in which I also added shiitake mushrooms, spinach and young chard, as well as Rio Zeppelin beans which I cooked from dried, and which I think made a big difference from canned beans.I also used wheat berries instead of pasta, and enjoyed their slightly chewy texture.The pesto was a hit, though I’d add some arugula for more zip.

It was delicious BUT--really the amount of cabbage "remaining" is a stumble (as others have noted) because even though you are told to use 1/2 a head of savoy cabbage it depends on the size of the head. I have to assume that IF any is left over 4 cups you may add it to the pesto thus avoiding waste. The recipe really should be reworded.

I liked this, but could you change the spinach portion from cups to ounces? I can’t imagine I’m the only one who doesn’t totally understand how many ounces of spinach equals five cups, especially when the recipe doesn’t specify loosely or tightly packed (I echo this for all recipes that use cups instead of ounces for greens)