This soup looks like my neighborhood right now.
Okay and get this. Normally I don’t gravitate towards certain fallish colors, likes the brown and yellow hues. Now, the burnt oranges, deep reds and dark purples? Totally obsessed with. But THIS YEAR? This year I’m loving it all. ALL OF IT. I’m like a loose lion on a rampage through the tapestry of seasonal change. Roar.
But what does it all mean? Am I changing within? Shedding my skin?
Don’t we shed our skin like, every 25 days or something? How weird is that? I mean, I love exfoliation as much as the next Joe, but shedding all of our skin in its entirety? Whaaaaaat.
I also thought there was something about every seven years or so our body turns over its cells and we have brand new ones? Is that right? I swear it’s something about SEVEN years and cells.
Aaaaand you don’t care.
Oh! How ’bout I sing?
To everything, (tuuuurn, tuuuurn, tuuuurn)
There is a season, (tuuuurn, tuuuurn, tuuuuurn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven.
A TIME TO BE BORN, A TIME TO DIE
A TIME TO PLA – oh.
So remember this chicken pesto minestrone I made a long time ago? Waaayell, I fall-a-fied it fer ya! (say that five times, fast)
The pesto uses sage, kale and toasted almonds, and I roasted some fall veggies instead of the chicken and asparagus. But you could totally add chicken if you want! But not the asparagus, unless you want your garage to be infested with cave crickets.
I’m just kidding.
There are those neighborhood colors again. Hi, neighbor!
Why am I so weird?
Get in that already.
A TIME FOR PEACE, I sweaaaar it’s not tooo laaaaaa-aaaaate.
Roasted Vegetable and Pesto Minestrone:
What it took for 4:
* 4 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
* 2 carrots, cut into bite-sized pieces
* 2 parsnips, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
* 1 turnip, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
* 2 small beets, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
* 3 cups baby kale leaves (or any kale, roughly chopped)
* 6 large sage leaves
* 3 cloves garlic
* 1/4 cup lightly toasted almonds
* 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
* 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
* 1 cup pasta shells
* 1 (14.5 oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
* coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 400. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the chopped vegetables with 1 Tbs. oil and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, until soft on the inside and gorgeous on the outside. Set aside.
While the veggies are roasting, make the pesto. In a food processor, add the kale, sage, garlic, cheese, toasted almonds, and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Pulse a few times to get her going. With the motor on, add the remaining oil in a thin stream, until pesto-fied.
In a large pot, bring the stock to a boil. Add the pasta and cook about 5 minutes. Add the beans and a good dollop of the pesto. I think I added around 2 Tbs. (You may have leftover pesto. Save it to swirl into your morning eggs or to spread on toast!)
Boil a couple more minutes until the pasta is al dente.
Now, you can either do this two ways. You can add the roasted veggies to the soup before you serve, OR you can ladle the soup into bowls, then top with the roasted veggies.
Finish with one more nice dollop of pesto on top of the veggies in the soup.
Dive into the mess headfirst.
*something to know! once you stir the veggies into the soup, the beets will turn the soup a nice purple color. It’s like, far out, man.*
I want a big pot of this soup…all for myself!
Roasted beets in minestrone! This is brilliance, I say! This looks like the perfect dinner for this time of year. Pure comfort, and pretty too.
Hi. You’re my hero. The end.
So, the fact is that I think vegetables are for grown ups and I don’t want to be a grown up, so I try to avoid vegetables. Yet, I come here, and you do these weird things that make me think “hmm, maybe i could be a responsible adult who likes vegetables too!”
Stop it. Stop it right now.
I have fall veggies that need to be used and LOVE pesto, so you are an answer to my prayers!
I love roasted fall veggies and all this rain has been making me gravitate towards soups. This is perfect!
Damn. This looks punch you in the face good!
Hi Bev!
I’m a new comer to your blog and love it! My family is from KC (grew up in Wichita), so it’s fun to find someone near home.
I never would have thought to do a pesto with kale. Since I’m mourning the loss of summer’s basil, I’m thrilled by the idea of continuing to make fresh pesto into fall. Yum!
That looks completely wonderful!
I’d like a big bowl of this
our neighborhood is starting to change colors and i LOVELOVELOVELOVE it! totally time for a big fat bowl of soup that matches it
I love your little cubes of roasted veggies! Colorful little diced perfection!
Perfection. Love the colors!
You make gorgeous food, Bev! Love the beets in here and that there isn’t too much broth.
Way to make root vegetables seem suuuuuper appealing. Adding pesto helps. I love that it makes the soup green!
Ha! Falliified! I’m going to use that. Totes brill!
Get in my soup, pesto. Get right in there.
I’ll be reeeeeally good if you come over and make this for me….
I absolutely love roasted veggies. Much better roasted than any other way, in my opinion. And these look dang good.
This looks so comforting Bev! I LOVE fall colors and the color of this soup! YUM!
So many lovely flavors in one bowl! Delish!
this is such a gorgeous dish! yesss!
The colors are totally fab. LOVE this soup Bev!
Heck yes! This sounds awesome!
Is it weird that my favorite part about this is the mini shells and then the colors? Perfect for Fall!
Beautiful dish!
I made this recipe last night, and it came out delicious, but I’m not sure if I got the proportions wrong. I used vegetable stock instead of chicken, and the box said it was four cups’ worth, but there didn’t seem to be enough left after cooking the pasta. The flavor was there, but it almost didn’t look soupy enough. Would I just be best off adding more than four cups of stock?
I made this soup tonight and it was wonderful. Deeply satisfying. I added some water at the end as the 4 cups of stock must have boiled down a bit or got sucked up by the pasta. was very good with a big chunk of sourdough bread.