Firstly let me just say one thing before I start with this post.

To this day, I still have no idea how to pronounce this dish. Every time it wants to roll off my tongue. I keep wanting to minecraft. Again, I am not sure why seeing as I never played minecraft before.

Anyway back to the food at hand.

I saw my mother’s work colleagues making this soup for his kids and I was intrigued to try it myself. I never came across a recipe that screamed at me to try it out.

Then I came across a recipe for this soup in Mary Berry’s cook book and the rest is history. I just had to try it out, if it is good for Mary then it is good for me.

The up side to this dish it was vegan friendly. Again I was under the impression that this was a meat soup, and I call myself a self taught chef, when I don’t even know the difference of minestrone soup. It’s bad I tell you.

This soup was delicious, I tweaked it with the cheese, the only place in my area that seems to sell parmesan cheese is Checkers, which I don’t mind driving to just, but when you walk in through the front doors and see all the long lines, well who in their right mind is going to stand in a queue just for cheese…not me. Sooo I threw caution to the wind and added feta cheese and to tell you the truth it tasted delicious.

My dad was going on about beans again and cabbage and complaining that I am trying to set record wind speeds in the area.

Ingredients:

• 2 x tbsp. olive oil.
• 1 x onion, finely chopped.
• 2 x celery stalks, chopped.
• 2 x carrots, finely chopped.
• 1 x 400g tin, Italian plum tomatoes.
• 1 x tbsp. tomatoe paste.
• 1 x garlic clove, crushed.
• Salt and black pepper to season.
• 6 ¼ x cup vegetable stock.
• 1 x can kidney beans, drained and rinsed.
• 250g x leeks, thinly sliced.
• 125g x cabbage, finely chopped.
• 2 x tbsp. Arborio rice.

Method:

• Heat oil in a pot.
• Add onion, celery and carrots.
• Saute till the onions are transparent.
• Add in the tin of tomatoe, tomatoe paste, garlic, seasoning and stock.
• Allow this mixture to come to the boil.
• Add in the kidney beans, leeks, cabbage and rice.
• Simmer on a medium heat for 20 – 30 minutes.
• Garnish with pepper and some crumbed feta.