The not one-pot Minestrone

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1. Start by chopping your garlic, onions, carrots, celery and chilli. I used a whole but if you want things less spicy 1/2 is enough. You can always adjust later on.
2. Turn on your stove and add everything to your pot with a generous glug of oil. Chop the veg as you like, I like to keep my onions in large rings as I like larger pieces in my soup but that is up to you. Add your fresh herbs, a generous pinch of salt and pepper and let it cook for a good 20 minutes.
3. Whilst that is cooking, prepare your pumpkin, celeriac and kale. Whilst usually a minestrone has you adding everything to the pot, I do think that roasting these particular things makes a huge difference. Chop into chunks, ((preserve any discards for making stock)maybe 1-2 cm squares and cover in oil, again some sage and rosemary, salt, pepper and add to oven, at around 170 degrees celsius, for a good hour – you want the sweet note of both pumpkin and celeriac to really come out.
4. Also already prepare your trey of kale – give it a wash, remove the big stems (preserve for making stock) and massage in some oil and salt for a few minutes. Spread out evenly across a baking tray. You can add the kale to the oven around 20 minutes before you want to serve the food, so once your pumpkin/celeriac has been in there for a good 3/4 of an hour.
5. Once that is done, you can add both the canned tomatoes and broth to your pot and let it all simmer. Start tasting after half an hour and see if you would like to add more pepper, salt or chilli, perhaps you need a little bit more water.
6. At this point I would also add the beans. I usually try and cook mine from scratch but from the can will do.
7. Just as the pumpkin, celeriac & kale are about to be taken out the oven, boil your pasta water if adding and add pasta of choice. If you have spinach or any other quick wilting greens to add, do that now.
8. Take out the treys from the oven. Since I like my soups to be a little bit thicker, I take about ¼ of the pot, a handful of the roasted pumpkin and celeriac and put it all in a blender, then pour it back in the pot. Chunky soups for the win !
9. Now it is time to serve – assemble the soup, add your boiled pasta, top with roasted veg and crispy kale. Top withmore fresh herbs, some grated lemon zest (optional) or some chili oil and enjoy.

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