Vegan Minestrone

Recently, Robert and I have made an effort to cut animals out of our diet. For a multitude of reasons, most notably because we are reading this book:

And we recently saw this documentary:

The former looks at what we do to the animal industry; the latter examines what the animal industry does to us. Both interesting and eye opening, but be warned, not all that easy to digest.
In the spirit of a new challenge, I am attempting some vegan cuisine. An oxymoron, you say? Well then, challenge accepted! As I help myself to a second bowl-ful, check out this recipe for Vegan Minestrone:

Step One: Gather Your Ingredients (sorry no ingredient pictures here, but halfway through the recipe I decided to blog)
2 T olive oil
4 carrots
1 onion
4 stalks celery
2 zucchini
pinto beans (I cooked these from dry, but you can always use a drained can of pintos)
1 t garlic
fresh ginger (2 or 3 fingers worth - is that how you measure fresh ginger?)
salt & white pepper
1 - 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I used the fire roasted kind - delish!)
herbs of your choosing (I chose sage, basil, and oregano from the garden - you can use fresh or dried!)
1/2 lb pasta (whole wheat orecchiette if you want to be like me!)
water

Step Two: Saute the veggies and make broth at the same time
Most minestrone recipes call for broth of some sort (I even found a few that called for chicken broth - isn't Minestrone classically a vegetarian soup?) but I "just say no" to store-bought broths. They cost too much and trust me you don't want to consume the stuff anyway. Traditionally, you would steep veggies with salt and pepper in water to make a broth before straining and creating your soup. But I combined these two steps with successful results!

Dice 1/2 the onion, 2 carrots, and 2 stalks of celery. In a large pot over high heat, add olive oil, garlic, and diced veggies. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the remaining onion, and break the carrot and celery in two and add those as well. Add herbs, ginger (no need to peel or chop) and season pot with salt and white pepper.

Cover entire mixture with water (I used about 6 cups). Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cook pasta in a separate pot and drain when al dente.

Remove large veggies, ginger, and any herbs still on the stalk. Add can of tomatoes, pinto beans, diced zucchini, and cooked pasta.

Orecchiette - In Italian it means "little ears." In my minestrone it means delicious!

Simmer an additional 20 minutes if you can stand it. Just make sure the zucchini's cooked. 

Now, I bought Parmesan cheese to go on top. But this was perfect as is. The fire roasted tomatoes and pinto beans give it a smoky flavor and you'll never miss the lack of meat. Enjoy!