Minestrone Soup with Tortellini

Loosely translated from Italian, Minestrone means "The Big Soup". You will be able to find many different recipes for this soup, as the ingredients are not set in stone. I found this recipe in my pressure cooker cookbook. I vaguely remember usually seeing beans anytime I have had minestrone, but this recipe did not include any.

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped small
• 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 2 carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 8 ounce package cheese tortellini
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasonings
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper

Add the oil to the pressure cooker and set to brown or high, with the lid off. Saute onions, celery, carrots, and garlic until onions begin to sweat. Add the remaining ingredients and stir. Lock on the lid and cook on high for 5 minutes. Perform a quick release. Check tortellini. If it is too al dente for your liking, continue to boil on high or "brown". Garnish with Parmesan cheese, if desired.



I like to eat. A lot! I like big portions, which is probably my #1 battle when it comes to weight loss. It bugs me deep down to my core to just have soup as a meal. Soup is a side to be paired along with a sandwich or an appetizer to a dinner. Soup can never be just the meal. See what I mean? If I am to change this body, I need to change the thinking. Tonight's dinner was just the soup. I had a large lunch which consisted of a  veggie parmesan sandwich that came with fries, so I rationalized that I could handle just soup for dinner. OK, I did add one slice of buttered (margarined) toast with it. This soup really is meant to be a meal. It was absolutely delicious and filling. I will confess to going back for seconds. I especially liked the carrots! Maybe next time I make it I will add a third carrot to the mix.

I did cheat a teensy tiny bit on this Meatless Monday thing with this soup. I only had 3 cups of vegetable broth left in my freezer, so I used a cup of chicken broth make up the rest. Since I do not claim to be a vegetarian and I did not use any new meat to make this meal I will let it slide. Plus the chicken broth was made as to not waste any chicken pieces or vegetables, so in all it was beneficial. I also left out the sugar that the recipe called for. With so many other delicious ingredients, I didn't think the extra sinful ingredient would be needed. Definitely not! This soup was absolutely delicious. Even Sophia thought so! She was literally raving to me about how tasty it was. I never get too many rave reviews from her, as it is usually a struggle to get her to eat a decent portion, but she loved it!
"Woah!" So I ask, whats up? "My belly says its yummy!"
"Mom, I'm not even gonna lie. This is really good."
"I like this soup to 100."
Those are only some of the quotes from her. Tortellini is probably one of her favorite pastas. I don't know why she loves these little cheese filled circles more than even the cheese filled squares of ravioli. I don't cook them too often, but anytime we have them, she gobbles them up. She ate all the tortellini's out of the soup before she started working on the rest of it.

There was only one problem with this soup. Being mainly liquid based in the pressure cooker, when I performed the required quick release, not only steam rushed out of the escape hole. It started spewing hot drops of soup right out the top! I had soup all over the front of my cabinets and all along the counter tops. When I realized this was happening, I held a paper towel over the hole in an attempt to catch the flying drops, only to burn my fingertips. I will definitely be making this soup again at some point, so I am contemplating allowing it to perform its own natural release for a while before letting the extra pressure escape. I am scared this method will make the tortellinis cook too much and become mush. In the mean time, I was able to clean the mess up quickly with a damp sponge before it dried. Not too much harm done....