Minestrone

I will be the first to admit that despite my Italian heritage, I have never dabbled in trying to make a minestrone.  However, I ended up with many of the ingredients to do just that with this past week's CSA, so I decided to play around and see if I could manage to do the soup justice.  Let me first mention here that I love making soups in my Crockpot.  It just makes life easier because I don't have to watch it and stir it every few minutes, etc.  So, while this is a minestrone-like soup, I wouldn't call is a real minestrone.  I am not sure than most people would know the difference, so in the end I could probably call it minestrone, but I do feel a little strange putting it out there as such.  You can be the judge.  Oh, yeah, and there is one other thing.  The recipes all call for carrots, which I did not have.  I did, however, have golden beets, so I chose to substitute those for the carrots.  It seemed to have worked, although, again, normally, you do not have beets in a minestrone.

Crockpot Vegetable "Minestrone"

• 2 cups chopped cabbage*
• 1 bunch Swiss chard*, stems and leaves chopped
• 6 Roma tomatoes*, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 3 golden beets*, quartered and sliced
• 1/2 medium Cousa zucchini*,  cut in thirds and sliced
• 4 cups chicken stock*
• 1 (15-oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15-oz) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• Kosher salt, to taste
• Fresh grated parmesan cheese

Place all ingredients, except parmesan, into crock of Crockpot.  Cook on HIGH for 1 hour, then reduce heat to LOW and cook for 6-8 hours or until cabbage is tender.  Adjust seasoning.  Serve sprinkled with fresh parmesan.

*CSA ingredients