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from bottom to top: an oven tray with chickpeas, two bowls of minestrone, a small bowl of herbs, a spoon, and a tea towel against a dark backdrop

Fall Minestrone with Crispy Chickpea Croutons

A seasonal Italian inspired dish with chickpea croutons and pasta. Hearty and delicious!
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Cooling down 1 hour
Total Time 3 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 6 people
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Minestrone
  • drizzle olive oil
  • 2 white onions, diced
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 bell peppers, diced i used 1 yellow and 1 green pepper
  • 1 heaping tbsp marmite
  • 5 sundried tomatoes in oil, minced
  • 1 sweet potato, medium sized, in cubes
  • 4 potatoes, small, in cubes
  • pepper
  • 1 kombu leaf, cleaned
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 400 grams puréed tomatoes (passata) (1 large tin)
  • 1.5 liters filtered water
Chickpea Croutons
  • 200 grams chickpeas 1 small tin
  • drizzle of olive oil
  • pinch sea salt i like to use Maldon salt
  • cracked black pepper
  • 1 tsp paprika powder
  • ½ tsp crushed chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed with the peel on
Optional
  • 400 grams pasta i used small elbow pasta

Equipment

  • oven
  • Big pot

Method
 

Minestrone
  1. Start with getting a big pot on the stove on a low to medium heat. Drizzle in a generous amount of olive oil. Once warm, add the onion, salt, and garlic. Sautée until softened.
  2. Add the peppers and turn up the heat a little. Once they're starting to cook down, add the marmite and the sundried tomatoes. I like adding some of the oil from the sundried tomatoes too.
  3. Throw in the sweet potato and potatoes, a bit of black pepper, the kombu leaf, the bay leaves, the puréed tomato, and the water.
  4. Stir well and let simmer for an hour. After an hour, you can take this off the heat. Let rest until you're read to serve the minestrone.
Crispy Chickpea Croutons
  1. Preheat your oven to 175/180 °C (350 °F). Line a baking tray or sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Rinse and dry your chickpeas. Once dry, add them to the baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, add the salt, pepper, paprika, chillies, oregano, and thyme and move around so all the chickpeas are coated. Throw in the crushed garlic clove.
  3. Put in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy!
Pasta
  1. Choose your pasta and cook, following the instructions on the bag.
Back to the minestrone
  1. After the minestrone has had the chance to cool down, start warming it up whenever you're ready to serve. P.S. you can pick out the bay leaves and the kombu leaf before serving this.
  2. Serve the minestrone hot, topped with pasta and chickpeas.

Notes

This dish is easily made gluten free if you use GF pasta!
Keeps in the fridge for up to ca. 5 days. Freezes well too. 
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!