Minestra: Healthy Italian Greens and Beans
Minestra is an Italian dish that’s full of healthy greens and beans; it’s very nutritious and low fat. Despite the way it looks, it’s absolutely delicious! Give it a try to start the new year off in a healthy manner!
Originally published October 19, 2012.
Minestra has to be one of the most awful looking dishes of all the things I regularly cook.
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There’s nothing else quite like minestra*, in both looks and taste. I don’t know of any British or American dish that I can compare and contrast it with, so you’ll have to go out on a limb and trust me that it’s not just healthy, but also very tasty! It’s also vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free.
Beans provide the protein, so it’s quite a well-rounded meal from a nutritional perspective. You can find canned beans without any added ingredients, but I prefer to cook my own. If you don’t know how, you can learn how easy it is to do! Learn how to cook dried beans.
I remember coming home from work one day when I was pregnant with my first child, and being so happy that my cousin, Denisa (visiting from England) had made minestra for dinner! I suppose it’s a type of Italian “comfort food,” but definitely not one you feel guilty about eating as it’s also a cucina povera dish. The combination of different greens is delicious; the sweetness of the Savoy cabbage softens the flavor of the slightly bitter dandelion.
Here’s another recipe which uses Savoy cabbage.
You can add a piece of pancetta or cotechino sausage to minestra. I can’t buy it here in the US, so if I don’t have any on hand, just skip the entire sausage or meat addition. Cotechino sausage has fennel seeds in it, so to mimic the flavor of the sausage, I throw in some fennel seeds and it works quite well.
Minestra is one of those meals which is even better the next day.
Freshly made, it’s lovely when eaten with pieces of sweet onion and crusty Italian bread to soak up the juices (see photo above). However, the next day, it tastes completely different when reheated with more extra virgin olive oil and pieces of dried crusty bread – it’s crazy good!
Rapini: another healthy Italian green veg
Just don’t judge this minestra based on looks. I’m going to show you how to make minestra, and reheat the leftovers and all I hope is that you’re brave enough to give it a try. My neighbor tasted it a while ago and was smitten, and now makes it regularly. In fact, she brought a dish of it for a Thanksgiving side dish last November!
Feel free to mix and match greens, if you like chard or kale, add some; my mother doesn’t like spinach in hers so she doesn’t add it. It’s a greens “free for all!” However, as a base, I would say you shouldn’t omit the cabbage and dandelion greens (cicoria), as they really are the foundation of this dish. If you didn’t know, there are many types of dandelion, not just the yellow flowered variety, which are also edible and can be used for cooking, like this dandelion jelly, for example.
Minestra
a cucina povera D’Aguanno family recipe makes 6 servings
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Ingredients
- extra virgin olive oil
- fresh garlic
- (optional: cotechino sausage or pancetta)
- Savoy cabbages
- dandelion leaves (chicory)
- kale, or chard
- spinach
- dried fennel seeds
- Kosher or sea salt
- black pepper, freshly ground
- cannellini or Borlotti (cranberry) beans, or even navy or pinto beans, cooked (how to cook your own dried beans)
Directions to Make Minestra
Place oil, water and garlic (and cotechio/pancetta if using) in a very large pot; heat over medium high heat.
First add the chopped Savoy cabbage and cover with the lid.
After about 5 minutes, stir (add the kale if using) and cover again. Let cook for another 5 minutes, then stir once more. You’ll start to think that everything won’t fit in the pot, but it will.
Now add the dandelion leaves, and continue to cook over medium heat, covered, stirring now and then, for about 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper and the fennel seeds. Check to make sure the liquid has not dried up, if so, add more water.
The last greens to go in are the spinach, then cook for another 5 minutes or so. Now add the beans and mix well into the minestra. Taste for salt and pepper, and continue to cook for just a few minutes until the beans are heated through, and that’s it. If it looks like this, you’ve done it correctly!
Serve hot with homemade bread and slices of sweet onion! YUMMY!
Leftover Minestra
- cooked minestra with liquid (if it’s too dry, add a little water)
- extra virgin olive oil (for about 4 cups of minestra) be sure to use top quality oil
- stale, crusty Italian bread, torn into bite size pieces
In a nonstick frying pan over medium heat, put about 2 tablespoonfuls of olive oil, add the minestra and the torn pieces of bread, and drizzle about 1 or 2 more tablespoons of olive oil on top.
Cook, stirring frequently, until the bread has absorbed the liquid and softened, and everything is heated through.
Serve hot, with slices of sweet onion, if desired.
Please let me know what you think of this type of Italian “peasant food” recipe: good or bad; I’d love to hear what your opinion is and if you will try it? Will you never look at my site again? 😂
*For clarification purposes, “minestra” is what my family and people in the area where my family is from, in Italy, call this dish. Minestra is usually more of a soupy dish, however, each area of Italy has different names for sometimes similar dishes. Although my minestra has a lot of liquid, it’s definitely not a soup.
Minestra: Healthy Greens and Beans
Ingredients
- 6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 ½ cups water or more if needed
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 large Savoy cabbage preferably organic, cut into chunks
- 1 bunch dandelion leaves organic, trim off bottom inch, then cut in half
- 1 bunch kale or chard, organic, cut (this is optional)
- 1 bunch spinach organic, trim off bottom part of stems, cut in half
- ⅛ tsp dried fennel seeds
- ½ tsp sea salt to taste
- ⅛ tsp black pepper freshly ground, to taste
- 12 oz Cannellini beans or Borlotti (cranberry) beans, or even navy or pinto beans, cooked (how to cook your own dried beans)
Instructions
- Place oil, water and garlic in a very large pot; heat over medium high heat. First add the chopped Savoy cabbage and cover with the lid.
- After about 5 minutes, stir (add the kale if using) and cover again. Let cook for another 5 minutes, then stir once more. You'll start to think that everything won't fit in the pot, but it will.
- Now add the dandelion greens, and continue to cook over medium heat, covered, stirring now and then, for about 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper and the fennel seeds. Check to make sure the liquid has not dried up, if so, add more water.
- The last greens to go in are the spinach, then cook for another 5 minutes or so. Now add the beans and mix well into the minestra. Taste for salt and pepper, and continue to cook for just a few minutes until the beans are heated through, and that's it.
- Serve hot with homemade bread and slices of sweet onion! YUMMY!
Leftover Minestra:
- You will need: Cooked minestra with liquid (if it's too dry, add a little water), 3 to 4 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (for about 4 cups/ 300 g of minestra), and stale, crusty Italian bread, torn into bite size pieces.
- In a nonstick frying pan over medium heat, put about 2 tablespoonfuls of olive oil, add the minestra and the torn pieces of bread, and drizzle about 1 or 2 more tablespoons of olive oil on top.
- Cook, stirring frequently, until the bread has absorbed the liquid and softened, and everything is heated through. Serve hot, with slices of sweet onion, if desired.
Notes
- All greens should be washed before cutting.
- Nutrition facts are for the freshly made minestra.
Nutrition
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use bacon!
Hi Frank, as much as I do adore bacon, I wouldn’t want it in minestra. :(
Hi my name is Patrizia and this is one dish my mother always made with Savoy cabbage. I made it twice last month and we all love Italian peasant food. We make it more soupy. Sometime add pepperoni in it. I like it without pepperoni. Love the old recipes, I feel so lucky my mother made me learn how to cook the old Italian style.
Hi Patrizia! I’m delighted to hear that you love minestra as much as I do! We are very fortunate to have learned the old Italian ways in the kitchen! Brava!
I like your recipe and your website.
Great recipe with the brilliant idea of adding a “leftovers” option.
You add these leftover ideas on all your recipes I think it’s gonna be a hit!
You are unique. Bravo!
Thanks, JD!
Thank you for reminding me of this! My grandma and mother would make it with smoked ham and serve it over a fried polenta cake. Yum yum yum! And they used escarole. Now I have to make some!
Glad to have reminded you, it’s a fabulous and healthy dish!
Cristina, My family makes this but it’s much different. I don’t think I would like your version but my cousin would have – I don’t like bitter greens at all so no dandelions for me! LOL Our family make this using some kind of meat – usually some leftover ham or Italian sausage, leftover roast pork or whatever was on hand. We used white beans, greens (whatever the garden produced – swiss chard or kale) – escerole would work too but it was always used in Wedding Soup. We also added potatoes and, if available, some fresh green beans. No, it’s not a real pretty dish but it explodes with flavor. I add some broth (whatever is available), onions and garlic to it. It’s so yummy. I imagine the ingredients depend on the area your family came from in Italy Thanks for sharing this recipe. It’s nice to see folks maintaining the old foods and recipes! I’m 75 and still love the old dishes of my childhood!
I just saw this recipe and am looking forward to trying it! Can we use regular dandelion greens from our unsprayed, no chemicals-added yard, or are there varieties that people purposely grow? (I have never seen them in stores.) My mother’s old Le Leche League cookbook has several recipes using dandelions! Thank you and please add more inexpensive and healthy recipes like this! We are cooking for seven and like everything we have made from your site!
Hi Sara, you can! My mother says you might want to blanche them before using them to take a little of the bitterness out (she doesn’t because she likes it that way). However, there’s chicory, which also grows wild (purple flowers) and then the one that is sold in grocery stores is different and is very mild. Sounds like you’d enjoy my cucina povera recipes! Let me know what you think of the minestra!
Our family makes this using escarole. This is one of my favorite dishes. My mom would add a small chunk of smoked butt.
Yes, that’s awesome to hear, Debra! So delicious!! Glad you enjoy it!