Pedon Minestrone Soup Mix Recipe

 A friend from work introduced me to the Pedon range of quick cook dried grains, pulses and pastas for soups and casseroles. Usually dried ingredients such as beans, pearl barley and lentils require soaking overnight and then can take up to an hour of boiling to cook. This is not very useful if you are making something in a hurry and have not planned well in advance. Pedon have developed these "mixes" so that they do not require soaking and can be cooked in approximately 10 minutes with all the different grains and pulses being evenly cooked. I have bought supermarket soup mixes in the past and often the lentils would have cooked away to nothing and the pearl barley will still be rock hard and the other ingredients somewhere in between. So far my experience with the Pedon range is that all the components within the mix are ready at the same time.

 The mix I have used today is "Italian Style Minestrone with Pasta". It contains barley, spelt, pasta, red split lentils, yellow split lentils, green split peas & yellow split peas. So lots of fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals.

The pack instructs you to use 2 litres of water for the 250g bag. From my experience I can tell you that this makes A LOT of soup that is VERY THICK with the beans and pulses. I have been experimenting with recipes and have found that 1.5 litres to 125g (1/2 a pack) gives a much better consistency.

Here is a Minestrone soup recipe I made today with the Pedon mix.

Minestrone Soup with Pedon Mix
Serves 6

Ingredients
125g of Pedon Italian style minestrone with pasta soup mix
4 x rashers of bacon, cut into small pieces, I use kitchen scissors
2 x onions, chopped
3 x sticks of celery, chopped
3 x cloves of garlic, crushed
3 x carrots, peeled and chopped into small cubes
1 x small parsnip, peeled and cubed
1 x handful of green beans, chopped
1.5 litres of stock (chicken or vegetable)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp dried marjoram
freshly ground pepper

Method
1. In a large saucepan, fry the bacon in 1 tbsp of the oil until it starts to crisp and brown.
2. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside.
3. Add the remaining oil to the pan and then fry the onions and celery until the onion begins to soften.
4. Mix in the rest of the chopped vegetables, including the crushed garlic. Put a lid on the pan and sweat all the veg for about 3 minutes.
5. Remove the veg mix from the pan and set aside.
6. Pour the stock into the pan and add the Pedon minestrone mix. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Tip the vegetables and bacon back into the pan. Mix in well with the stock and minestrone mix. Season, add the marjoram and cook for a further 10 minutes.

Serve with fresh bread!

I have made this soup to take into work for my lunch in my Thermos Food Flask. I always look forward to lunchtime when I know I have a hot flask of healthy, delicious homemade soup!