miscellophaneous minestrone

I don't think I was setting out to make minestrone soup, but it seems like it headed in that sort of direction. Last night, I was inspired to use the millet in the pantry in some kind of soup. I didn't follow a recipe but I did read some soup recipes last night just to get a gist of times and everything.

Serves 2-3 and I would say, prep takes 15 minutes, cooking time 45 minutes.

What I used (listed in order of using them):

• 1.5-2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 0.5 tsp of whole cumin
• black pepper (or to taste)
• 2 small onions, diced
• 1 medium carrot, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, whole
• 1 teaspoon of salt (or to taste)
• 3 cups of hot water
• thigh from leftover roast chicken*
• some millet^
• 2 tomatoes, chopped up
• 1 chili pepper, whole
• 4 mushrooms, halved

* you could indeed easily leave the chicken out, thereby having the soup completely animal-free. You could also use stock instead of the water + chicken, but we didn't have any and so I got creative.

^ I never measure ingredients like olive oil, cumin, salt, black pepper or millet. Any measurement I have given is an estimation. Regarding the millet, I used about just enough to cover the lid of a jar. In hindsight, I should have used more. You could use substitute the millet for something like rice, quinoa or even pasta.

How you should do it (I did it differently and learned that I should have done it more like this):

1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan. On low to medium heat, sauté the carrot, onion and garlic with cumin, salt, and a few twists of the peppermill of black pepper.
2. Before the vegetables begin to soften too much, cover them with water. Add the chicken and millet. Return to the boil, and then lower the heat and cover for 5ish minutes or until the chicken is just beginning to fall apart.
3. Add the tomatoes, mushrooms and the chili. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, or at least until the millet and the carrot are soft.
4. Et voilà, kids, that's it! Serve and season with black pepper or anything you want.

Two things I really love are tomatoes that have been cooked for so long that the flesh has come apart from the skin, and really juicy mushrooms. Other things I am keen to try this out with: celery, beans, zucchini, potato, pumpkin, broccoli, more herbs and spices. I think this is a great way to get a huge hit of vegetables in one go.