Roasted Vegetable and Pesto Minestrone

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.*