Minestrone by 2s

What do you do with leftovers?

Traditionally, you make soup.

So we did.

What we discovered is that Minestrone is the perfect leftovers soup. The recipe is incredibly flexible (3 cookbooks I consulted had 3 different recipes!), and it tastes good and is relatively easy.

Here is the recipe I used today:

1-2 tbsp minced dried onions
2 small potatoes, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 sticks of celery plus the leaves, diced
2-4 tsp beef bouillon powder
2 cups of water
Boil these 5-10 minutes, until the veggies are just tender
Then add:
2 cups leftover noodles with meat sauce (I used last night's shells, but spaghetti would work, just run a couple knives through it scissors fashion first to break up the noodles some)
1/2 c leftover canned bean with bacon soup (or up to 2 cans of any non-chili-flavored beans you have sitting around)
2 tsp italian seasoning
garlic salt, salt, pepper to taste
water to cover the ingredients or as much as you need in order to feed everyone (I added 3 1/2 more cups)
Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes or so to blend the flavors.

This is one of those "add what you have" soups: some people skip the meat or noodles, some put in all kinds of veggies (green beans, cabbage, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes or canned tomatoes, frozen mixed veggies, etc...whatever you have on hand). Some people use ham, sausage, or bacon instead of the hamburger I use.

I serve it sprinkled with grated cheese and bacon bits, with toast on the side.