Amy says: “This is my family’s favourite soup, and I am so excited to share it with you. It is warming and comforting, and it’s packed with a rich, herby tomato sauce. The beans add a good dose of protein, and you can use any vegan pasta shapes you like. Finish off this hearty bowl with some torn basil, hunks of bread, and vegan parmesan for a taste of Italy from your own kitchen.”

Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients

For the Soup:

• 1 tablespoon (15ml) olive oil
• 1 red onion, small dice
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped small
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped small
• 1 courgette (zucchini), chopped small
• ½ teaspoon dried basil
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 can mixed beans (drained: 8½ ounces, or 240g)
• 1 can (14 ounces, or 400g) chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup (100g) small pasta shapes
• 2 cups (480ml) vegetable broth or stock
• 2 tablespoons (32g) tomato paste (purée)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• ½ cup loosely chopped fresh basil (a large bunch)

To serve:

• Toasted or fresh bread
• Torn basil
• Vegan parmesan

Method

Add the olive oil to a large saucepan or a deep frying pan over high heat. Add the onion and garlic. Fry off for 5 minutes, until softening. Add the carrot, bell pepper, and zucchini. Fry for 5 minutes to soften the vegetables.

Add the dried basil and oregano to the pan. Cook for 1 minute to release the aromas.

Add the beans, tomatoes, pasta, broth, tomato paste, salt, and pepper. Stir well and allow the soup to just come to the boil.

Place a lid on the pan and lower the heat to simmer for 25 minutes, or until the pasta is soft. Stir occasionally; add more broth as needed.

Stir in the basil and cook for 5 minutes to allow the basil to infuse the soup.

Serve the minestrone warm with hunks of bread, some extra basil, and my cashew parmesan cheese.

Leftover soup will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for 2 to 3 days or in the freezer up to 1 month. Allow the soup to defrost and warm back up with a splash of water.

Serving suggestions and variations: 

Use any shape pasta for this soup, I like cavatappi, orecchiette, conchigliette, but stars, hearts or macaroni will work perfectly. You can even break up strands of spaghetti, too.

From Nourishing Vegan Every Day by Amy Lanza (£19.99, Fair Winds Press), out now

Megan says: “Minestrone is my favourite soup – it’s chunky, uses up what’s in the fridge, there is pasta and a showering of cheese involved. It’s also wonderful as leftovers, loaded up with more stock and any extras you want to throw in. You can add pancetta or bacon at the start if you wish.”

Serves 4–6

Ingredients

• 1 large brown onion (any onion, or use fennel, or top up on the other veg)
• 2 garlic cloves (purée or powder is fine, or omit)
• 2 carrots (or more onion, celery and leek)
• 2 celery sticks (or more onion, carrot and leek)
• 1 leek (or more onion, carrot and celery)
• 200g potato (can be omitted)
• 2 vine tomatoes (any fresh tomato, or add 1 teaspoon tomato purée with the garlic)
• 400g can of cannellini beans (or any cooked beans)
• 80g cavolo nero (or any leafy green, such as spinach, cabbage, kale)
• 1 litre chicken stock (or any stock, but chicken is best in my opinion)
• 150g dried pasta (any shape of dried pasta; fresh pasta is also fine, but add only 2 minutes before end of cooking)
• 10g parsley (or any fresh herb, or lemon zest and a squeeze of juice)
• 40g Pecorino (or any hard cheese, or a dollop of mascarpone)
• butter, for frying
• extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling 
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper 

Method

Halve, peel and thinly slice the onion. Heat a generous knob of butter in a large casserole dish on the hob over a medium heat. Once the butter is gently sizzling, add the onion and fry gently for 10 minutes, until softening.

Peel and grate the garlic. Trim and finely slice the carrots, celery and leek. Chop the potato and tomatoes into 2-cm/3⁄4-inch chunks. Drain and rinse the beans and finely shred the cavolo nero.

When the onions have had their time, add the garlic, carrot, celery, leek and potato. Mix to coat in the butter, then let them fry together for another 10 minutes, stirring often. Next, add the tomatoes, stock, beans and pasta. Bring to the boil and simmer for 8–10 minutes, until all the veg is tender, the pasta is al dente and it’s smelling lovely.

When the soup only has 5 minutes left, add the cavolo nero and stir through, so it lightly cooks. Taste the soup – it’ll probably need generous seasoning. Roughly chop the parsley and shave the Pecorino into crumbly shards. Transfer the soup to bowls and top with the cheese and parsley, finishing with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Goes well with:

Garlic-rubbed toast is my favourite.

Leftovers:

Tear up the leftover garlicky bread suggested above, add it to the leftover minestrone and turn the soup into a ribollita. 

From Fridge Raid by Megan Davies, (£18.99, Ryland Peters & Small), out now

Jo says: “Making a pot of minestrone is the perfect time to use up the veggies that you intended on using for something else, and didn’t quite get round to. Don’t let them turn to mush at the bottom of your fridge drawer. Small pieces of dry pasta are usually used when making minestrone, but I wanted to turn this into more of a main course by adding tortellini pasta instead. You can use any filling, whether it’s meaty, cheesy or a veg one.”

Serves 4–6

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 sticks celery, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 1 courgette (zucchini), finely chopped
• 1 litre/1¾ pints/scant 4¼ cups vegetable stock
• 1 x 400g/14 oz tin chopped tomatoes
• handful or two of seasonal greens, finely shredded, such as cabbage, kale, chard or spinach
• 250g/9 oz packet of fresh tortellini, filling of your choice
• flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

• 1 tbsp pesto, mixed with 2 tbsp olive oil
• Parmesan shavings or grated

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a low-medium heat and add the onion and celery. Sauté for about 8–10 minutes until softened. Add the tomato purée and paprika. Stir around for 30 seconds or so until the onion and celery are a lovely brick red colour, then add the garlic, carrot and courgette. Continue to sauté for a couple of minutes to soften.

Stir in the stock, chopped tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes.

Stir in the greens of your choice and then add the tortellini.

Return to a simmer and cook for 3–4 minutes, or for the time stated on the pasta packet.

Spoon the minestrone and tortellini into bowls, drizzle over some pesto sauce and finish with some Parmesan shavings.

Flexible:

Traditional minestrone: if you want to serve up a more traditional version of a minestrone soup, omit the tortellini and add 75g/2¾ oz dried spaghetti, broken up into small pieces, to the pan with the stock and chopped tomatoes.

Make it meaty: 

For a more meaty option to tortellini, fry some ready-prepared or homemade meatballs (beef, lamb, chicken, pork or turkey) in a frying pan until golden brown and stir into the minestrone pan when you add the stock and tomatoes. Cook as above.     

From The Flexible Family Cookbook by Jo Pratt (£20, Frances Lincoln), out now