Recipe: Pasta Fagioli

I saw this pasta fagioli recipe on Pinterest recently and it got me hungry for it.  The only place I have ever had this soup is Olive Garden and I love it, so I wanted to try to make it at home.  I made some adaptations to the original recipe that I mentioned mainly because I forgot that it was a crock pot recipe and I only got around to cooking at 4:00 in the afternoon, so I didn’t have time for that and because I wanted to add some more vegetables.  So here’s my version:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• 1 medium onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 8 carrots (4 to chop & 4 to puree)
• 2 cups of fresh baby spinach leaves
• 5 stalks of celery
• 2 cans (28 ounce each) of crushed tomatoes
• 1 can (16 ounce) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (16 ounce) great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 16 ounces of beef stock
• 16 ounces of spaghetti sauce (I used Mids 3 cheese)
• 8 ounces of pasta cooked (at Olive Garden they use these really small noodles, which I think work best, but I only had rotinis on hand)
• 2 tablespoons of dried parsley
• salt and pepper to taste (I add a little in stages throughout cooking)

Directions:

1. Brown the meat, onion, and garlic in a dutch oven (or sauce pot) until the meat is thoroughly cooked.  Drain out the grease.
2. Cut the carrots into pieces.  I used my Vidalia Chop Wizard to do the dicing for me, just like I did with my Chicken Vegetable Stew.  You can chop your veggies in this recipe whatever size you want.  I like mine a little smaller, but if you like your soup a little chunkier, then make them bigger.  Then steam them in a sauce pan with about a half inch of boiling water for 5 minutes or so, until they are tender.
3. Once they are tender, Divide carrots into two groups.  Put half into the blender with the spinach and blend into a puree using some of the beef stock.  Put the other half into the dutch oven with the cooked turkey.
4. Dice the celery and add it into the dutch oven as well.
5. Add in all the other remaining ingredients except for the pasta.
6. Bring the soup up to a boil, then lower the temperature and simmer for 30 minutes.
7. While the soup is simmering, boil your noodles according to package directions.  Drain water, then add into the soup after it has simmered for the 30 minutes.
8. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Nutrition:

Servings: 18

Serving size: 1 cup

Calories per serving: 205

It wasn’t quite as good as the Olive Garden’s, but I am enjoying it none the less.  Having convenient, healthy foods like this on hand are really helping me to stick to my diet right now.  I got my calorie information from SparkPeople’s Recipe Calculator and that it may not be exact, depending on preparation.  If you try it, let me know how you like it and if you change it in any way, I love hearing new ideas.  Enjoy!