The Conscious Kitchen » Minestrone with Fregola

Minestrone Soup Makes about 6 quarts For all ingredients, please consider using those that are grown organically or without pesticides.
1 tablespoon	olive oil
1	yellow onion, chopped
6	carrots, chopped
6	celery stalks, chopped
2 cloves	garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons	dried oregano
1 tablespoon	dried basil
16 ounces	cremini or white button mushrooms, sliced
3	zucchini, sliced
2 28 ounce cans	chopped tomatoes
2 quarts	vegetable stock or purified water seasoned with 2 bouillon cubes
2 quarts	purified water
3 15 ounce cans	beans, white or red kidney work best, drained
2 cups	fregola or small whole wheat pasta, orzo, macaroni, or small shells for gluten-free- use brown rice, wild rice or combination of the two

**If you are like me and do not want to be bothered with too much vegetable prep, I encourage you to pull out your food processor. The vegetables with not look as uniformly pretty, but its fast and easy. Begin with the onion and move through by vegetable in order of use. There is no need to wash the work bowl between them as they are all going together in the pot in the end. Use the metal blade for the onions, carrots, and celery, and switch to the slicing blade for the zucchini and mushrooms. Warm the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and a sprinkling of salt and cook for about 10 minutes while stirring occasionally. Add the carrots, celery, dried oregano, and dried basil to the onions and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, stock, and water and cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture begins to simmer. Add the zucchini and mushrooms and cook until they begin to submerge into the broth. They will all float to the top of the pot for the first 10-15 minutes. Add the beans and pasta and cook for about 30-45 minutes longer. Note that some noodles will begin to break apart after long periods of simmering. Season to taste with sea salt and pepper. The soup will hold nicely refrigerated for up to 5 days. I always freeze about two thirds of the batch in quart size containers or zip bags for those days that I do not feel like cooking. My family and I returned from a recent holiday road trip (10 hours in the car)/vacation at around 1:30 in the morning feeling tired and hungry. It was great to have this soup in the freezer as the refrigerator was fairly empty after being gone for two weeks. We lit a fire, got into our pajamas, and dinner (or perhaps I should say breakfast) was ready. We also had some bread that was in the freezer to go along with this always comforting meal.