We’d had a power outage the other day, the result of a particularly violent thunderstorm moving through. I came home from work in the middle of it, and made dinner in the dark. This is the reason I insist on always having a gas stove. I can light it even without the automatic starter. I’d planned to grill chicken, but between rain and lightning, decided soup was the way to go. I had very little potable water in the house, which I changed the next trip to the market with a couple jugs of distilled water, but decided to keep the water out of the soup. Looking around the pantry, I saw the tomato juice Dad had made the previous year and grabbed that. Now, I’d never made Minestrone from scratch, and didn’t have a recipe in any of my cookbooks. So I made it how I thought it tasted.
Power Outage Minestrone
1 qt tomato juice
2 small zucchini
2 carrots
1 onion, chopped fine
2-3 tbsp chopped garlic
little olive oil
handful of fresh thyme, oregano, and rosemary, chopped finely
2 can of beans (I used black-eyed peas and pinto beans because that’s what I had)
can of whole kernel corn
can of beef consomme
fresh ground pepper
I combined the sliced zucchini, carrots, onion, garlic, and herbs in the pan with the olive oil and sauteed them until they smelled really good and the onions were translucent. Then I poured in the tomato juice, consomme, and corn. I drained the beans before adding them. I let the whole thing simmer for about thirty minutes and served with bread (store bought that night, fresh by preference) and parmesan cheese sprinkles on top. Very filling and yummy! The lights came back on just as I was serving it.
