A Tasty Minestrone

Made this soup with my Mother when she was in town, visiting over the holidays. I drew upon all the practice we had in class with soups and stocks (felt like 4 weeks of soups and stocks!) We sort of just threw this together and what emerged from the pot was something delicious. Paired quite well with the cold weather we were having, it was like an ice box all weekend! And makes a great leftover!
My Mom suggested a vegetable soup. What I took from school was that you should not cook your veggies for more than 40 minutes. It contradicted the idea that I had long held, this idea that you just throw your veggies in the pot and let them cook all day in the broth. After 40 minutes or so they loose their nutrients, flavors and texture (mushy). So preparing a vegetable soup need only take about an hour.
Of course you must remember, this timing is the case only when you are using an already prepared broth. The stocks are what take a long time (flavoring water with bones and vegetables and letting sit for hours, then adding the meat and vegetable). For this soup we used three containers of chicken broth (tastier than vegetable broth) and a container of water. So consider, this is not vegetarian, substitute vegetable broth for a veggie friendly soup.
A Tasty Minestrone Soup
serves 6-8
3 containers of Chicken Broth (32 fl. oz. each box)
1 container of water (fill one of the empty broth boxes with water)
1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
3 stalks of celery (diced medium, consider it to fit on spoon)
1 onion diced medium
3 carrots diced medium
2-3 cloves garlic chopped
2 medium diced green zucchini
Kale (4 heaping handfuls, chopped up)
1/2 bag of french cut green beans chopped in half (consider spoon size)
1/2 a box of whole wheat macaroni noodles (boxed served 8, so consider it for 4)
2 tbs fresh dried parsley (my grocery store sells it dried in a glass container, its great!)
A freshly grated Italian cheese to top (we used a blend of Fontina, Parmesan and Asiago)
Salt and pepper to taste
Saute celery, onions, carrots and garlic at bottom of large soup pot for 2-3 minutes (as our Chef would say, "sweat the mirepoix", which is what you call the celery, onion and carrot mixture) then add your broth and water mixture. Add the diced tomato and raw macaroni. Bring soup to a boil and simmer. Once simmering, add green beans and medium diced zucchini. Add parsley and stir. Add your salt and pepper (a tbs. of salt, a tsp. of pepper?). Make sure soup is still simmering, check the doneness of your noodle and green beans, remember you don't want to cook those green veggies for more than 30-40 minutes. When noodle looks done, turn stove top off and throw in your Kale and put a lid on pot. The green wilts and cooks very fast so there is no need to keep heat on it. Bowl the hot soup and serve!

Tip. If you wish to have a red broth for your veggie soup it is simple! Add a tiny spoonful of tomato paste to the mirepoix mixture in the beginning. Where you are instructed to "sweat the mirepoix" and garlic before liquid, add the paste. When the liquid is added, stir and broth will turn red.