Italian Pasta & Vegetable Soup

The holidays are over and most of the country are on a detox after eating the country out of house and home for a fortnight.  But eating good food shouldn't mean a diet of gruel and goji berries, although I'm sure they're utterly delicious. This is a handy way to up your vegetable intake but not lose out on taste.  Adding the pasta bulks out the soup to keep you full and parmesan is full of calcium, so this is practically health food!

Feel free to change the vegetables to suit yourself - I used what was hanging around the fridge and veg basket.   I kept the vegetables very small & all the same size so they all cooked evenly.  This makes 1.5 litres of soup which will give you lunch every day for a week (keep it in the fridge).

Italian Pasta & Vegetable Soup

1 large Potato, chopped into 1cm dice

1 large Onion, chopped into small dice

2 Carrots, chopped into 1cm dice

200g Mushrooms, wiped & chopped

1 tbsp Oil

100g Pasta

1.5l Stock (use either Vegetable or Chicken)

1 tbsp Pesto

50g Parmesan, grated

Heat the oil in a large pot and saute the vegetables for about 5-10 minutes until tender.

Add the stock and pasta and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in the grated parmesan and pesto and serve.  Add some more parmesan on top if you're not feeling too virtuous!