MINESTRONE, BUT MAKE IT SPANISH.

Introducing... Spinestrone! Because it's Soup & Toast For Lunch season.

The next time you want a hearty, mostly-vegetable soup; the sort you can make a meal of; the sort that revives and restores; consider this one.

It starts as an Italianish minestrone, with loads of carrots, celery, and white beans. But then it decides it needs a holiday (who doesn’t?), and jumps a bus to Spain, where it picks up all sorts of new best friends - colourful red capsicums, smoky chorizo sausages, an extra dose of smoked paprika, and a shower of grated Manchego cheese. 

At the risk of over-packing its holiday suitcase, I also toss in some potato, zucchini and a handful of kale, for all the goodness that dark leafy greens bring to the table.

There are so many regional soups in Spain, it’s hard to keep track, and this one probably contravenes all local rules. It’s not a cocido from Madrid, nor a caldo Gallego from Galicia, nor a Catalan escudella with chicken and pig’s trotter and morcilla and chickpeas. It’s a Spinestrone.

NEED TO KNOW

If you have time, grab a pack of dried beans and soak them overnight. If not, use a couple of cans of white beans, drained, rinsed and added for the last ten minutes or so.  Cooking beans from scratch is more satisfying in every way, however. Quite simply, you get a better bean, and nothing but the bean.

There are lots of headlines on-line about how you don’t have to soak dried beans overnight and how you can just cook them until tender instead. Sure, if you have the HOURS required waiting for them to cook through.

Manchego cheese is a magnificent sheep’s milk cheese and well worth seeking out, but by all means sub with Parmigiano. Even better, keep it in the ewe’s milk arena with a good pecorino. I now use Manchego on pretty much everything, loving it’s grassy, nutty flavour and the way it smells of a good lambswool jumper.

The smoked paprika is intense, in a good way. You get a softer, rounder paprika flavour from the chorizo as well, but you need a real hit to make this soup sing.

Chorizo – my fave is the hot chorizo 2-pack from La Boqueria (Nomad Distribution).  I cook one chorizo in the soup for long-term flavour, and sizzle another to go on top for short-term satisfaction.

Kale – rip the leaves away from the stalks with your hands, give them a good wash, and tear the leaves up a bit if large. If using silver beet, cut out the thicker stalks, and roughly chop across the leaves. Don’t be tempted to add the leafy greens earlier in the cooking; they wilt and soften in minutes, and will go from green to grey in no time.

WHITE BEAN AND CHORIZO SOUP WITH MANCHEGO

• 200 g dried white beans

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• 2 celery stalks, chopped

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 2 carrots, chopped

• 2 fresh chorizo sausages, sliced

• 2 garlic cloves, sliced

• 1 red capsicum, seeded and chopped

• 1 large red-skinned potato, peeled and cubed

• 1 tsp smoked paprika

• 400 g canned tomatoes, chopped

• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes or Aleppo pepper

• Sea salt and black pepper

• 1 zucchini, sliced

• 6 cups stock or water

• Handful of leafy greens eg kale or silver beet

• Manchego cheese for grating

Soak the white beans overnight in cold water to cover by 5 cm, with 1 tsp salt. Drain, place in a saucepan and add fresh cold water to cover by 5cm. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour or until tender, then drain.

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based pot, and add the celery, onion and carrot, cooking for 10 minutes until softened.

Add one of the chorizo sausages (sliced), garlic, and red capsicum and fry for 3 minutes, tossing.

Add potato, tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika, chilli flakes and the hot water or stock and bring to the boil.

Lower the heat, add sea salt and pepper, and simmer, partly covered, for 30 to 40 minutes until all is tender.

Add the cooked and drained beans, zucchini and leaves to the soup, and simmer for a further 10 minutes, or until all is nice and thick and the zucchini is tender.

Quickly fry the remaining chorizo sausage, sliced, in a pan (no oil necessary).

Ladle the soup into warm pasta bowls and top with sizzled chorizo, grated Manchego, a swirl of good olive oil (or chilli oil), and extra pepper. Serves 4.

Thanks for dropping by! And as always, thanks for your comments and feedback. Special thanks to Terry for grating extra Manchego onto the hot buttered toast, omg.

I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past and present, and to the continuing strength and resilience of First Nations people, communities and cultures.