Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Creating this Italian Minestrone Soup on a budget using basic ingredients was an eye-opening experience for me.

Today, I’ll take you on a journey where I had a chance to live like someone with limited income.

Minestrone Soup For The Welfare Food Challenge

I participated in the British Columbia Welfare Food Challenge this week by raising the rates.

The challenge’s purpose is to understand better how challenging it can be to live on $109 a month for groceries given to welfare recipients.

With this challenge, you start with an empty pantry and spend only $26 at the grocery store on foods you will eat all week.

When colder weather approaches, soups, stews, and chili are often on the menu.

For this reason, I decided to make a pot of budget-friendly Italian Minestrone soup.

You can read about my journey in The Grocery Game Challenge posts and What I ate on the first 2 days of the challenge.

Almost Traditional Minestrone Soup

To complete this challenge, I had to use what was in my basket and had no pantry to back me up.

My minestrone soup recipe was created because I knew it would be hearty and filling.

This was an easy minestrone soup with the $26 worth of ingredients I had purchased.

Although it doesn’t have all the traditional Italian minestrone soup ingredients, it still works.

The minestrone soup recipe used almost all the ingredients I had in my basket. (I feel like I’m on that Food Network program “Chopped”).

Staple Food I Wish I Had

I would have loved to add some fennel greens to this recipe, but that wasn’t in my budget.

You could also make slow cooker minestrone and come home to this wonderful soup after a long day at the office.

The tangy flavour in the minestrone soup comes from the tomato paste and fresh lemon juice.

I also used the juice and rind for my lemon vinaigrette to top my garden salad.

It was just romaine lettuce and grated carrots, but it was a salad to me.

I don’t want to make it sound full of vegetables because that was false.

Missing Minestrone Ingredients

Other typical Italian minestrone ingredients that I didn’t have but can be added to this recipe.

• Fresh parsley
• Celery
• Zucchini
• Potatoes
• Canned Tomatoes
• Cabbage
• Pancetta
• Green Beans
• Cannellini Beans (White beans)
• Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans)
• Red Kidney Beans
• Italian seasoning – oregano and basil.

My Kalamata Olive bread would have been delicious to dip in this soup.

I would have also loved to grate fresh Parmigiano Regianno cheese over the soup.

Can you tell I’m hungry?

Give this recipe a try and please come back and tell me what you think.

How To Hydrate Dry Beans

Soak the beans overnight in cold water covered by a tea towel or dish.

Strain and rinse in the morning and boil the beans for 15 minutes until tender.

Rinse the beans under old water and refrigerate them in salted water until you need to use them.

Alternatively, hydrate dry beans in the crockpot for 4 hours or in an instant pot.

How To Make Italian Minestrone Soup

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 35 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes

Tools Needed To Make Minestrone Soup

• Med Stock or Soup Pot
• Ladle
• Knife
• Cutting board
• Measuring cup
• can opener
• strainer for your black beans

Minestrone Soup Ingredients

• 6 cups of cold water
• 4 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1 tsp salt and pepper
• Lemon slice
• 1 minced onion
• 2 carrots chopped small
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 2 cups of dry Italian Tubetti pasta
• 1 cup of cooked black beans
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove of minced garlic

Steps To Make Minestrone Soup

• In a medium-large stock pot, add the cold water and bring it to a boil.
• Add the chicken bouillon cubes
• Add the chopped carrots, minced onion, and garlic
• Add the Tubetti pasta
• Add in the tomato paste
• Add in 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper
• Add in the black beans
• Squeeze the juice from the lemon slice and add it to the pot.
• Stir the pot, then bring it to a boil.
• Lower it to medium for another 20 minutes or until the pasta is cooked.
• Ladle the minestrone into a bowl and add extra virgin olive oil to the top.

Homemade Soup On A Budget

That’s it, folks, and I bet you thought this would be a difficult soup to make.

It’s a great recipe to make with your children in the kitchen.

You can teach them to make a pot of soup for a fraction of the cost of convenience foods. 

If you take the time to learn new tricks in the kitchen, other recipes will start flowing.

Before you know it, people will want to be invited for dinner at your house.

Continue to Content

Easy Italian Minestrone Soup

Yield: 6

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

A tomato soup broth-based Italian minestrone made with basic ingredients for anyone on a tight budget.

Print

Ingredients

• 6 cups of cold water
• 4 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1 tsp salt and pepper
• Lemon slice
• 1 minced onion
• 2 carrots chopped small
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste

Instructions

1. In a medium-large stock pot, add the cold water and bring it to a boil.
2. Add the chicken bouillon cubes.
3. Add the chopped carrots, minced onion, and garlic.
4. Add the Tubetti pasta.
5. Add in the tomato paste.
6. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper.
7. Add the black beans.
8. Squeeze the juice from the lemon slice and add it to the pot.
9. Stir the pot, then bring it to a boil.
10. Lower it to medium for another 20 minutes or until the pasta is cooked.
11. Ladle the minestrone into a bowl and add extra virgin olive oil to the top.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

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