Leftover Chicken Minestrone

by Kevin Dundon

Minestrone is a wonderful one pot wonder that will use all your leftover vegetables and meats. A simple tip for the pasta is the wrap the spaghetti into a clean tea towel and break every 3-4 cm on a side or corner of your work top to obtain small pasta sticks.

4 people 30 minutes 15 minutes

Ingredients

200 g Bacon Rashers
2 medium Carrots peeled and chopped
1 medium Celery stick, trimmed and chopped
3 litre Chicken Stock Cube
400 g Chopped Tomatoes
1 medium Fennel Bulb thinly sliced
2 cloves Garlic peeled and chopped
1 portion Leftover Chicken shredded. The amount of chicken will depend on how much you have leftover and want to use
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 medium Onion chopped
1 pinch Pepper
1 pinch Salt
80 g Spinach
1 medium SuperValu Courgette sliced
1 tsp SuperValu Fresh Rosemary
3 sprigs SuperValu Fresh Thyme chopped
100 g SuperValu Spaghetti broken into small 3-4cm sticks

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the bacon and fry for 30 seconds until coloured. Add in the garlic, onion, carrot, celery, fennel, courgette and cook, stirring, for 4–5 minutes.

2. Add the thyme, rosemary and chicken stock, tin of tomatoes, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and broken pasta and cook for 10 minutes.

3. Add the spinach to the soup and remove from the heat. Leave for 3-5 minutes aside until the pasta is plump and the spinach just wilted.

4. Divide the soup between bowls and serve.