cooking-without-gluten-blog

[cooking-without-gluten-blog]

Pasta e Fagioli Soup (Crock pot and Vegan style) : Let me start with saying that I love Olive Garden more than a lot of things. Soup, salad and bread sticks?? I am so there. When I found out I have celiacs, I was devastated. No more soup? No more croutons? No more bread sticks?? Might as well take me out back and put me out of my misery. I just recently found out that Olive Garden has a decent Gluten free menu and they go above and beyond to make sure that there is little to no cross contamination. I add my own GF croutons to the salad and have a GF Dinner roll on the side. But. What. About. SOUP?! This is my rendition of the famous Pasta E Fagioli soup made vegan. You can easily customize this recipe to fit your needs. 

Ingredients

13.7 oz Gardein™ The Ultimate Beefless Ground crumbles

1 chopped yellow onion

1 cup diced carrots (about 2 medium)

1 cup diced celery (about 3 stalks)

1 Tbsp minced garlic (about 3 cloves)

24 oz tomato sauce

30 oz low sodium vegetable broth

15 oz diced tomatoes

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

Salt and black pepper (to taste)

16 oz elbow noodles (you can use Ditalini pasta, my grocery store was out)

15 oz dark red kidney beans

15 oz great northern beans

3 Tbsp minced fresh parsley(optional)

Instructions

1. Add your chopped vegetables, beans (if they are canned, drain and rinse), vegetable broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, garlic, Italian seasoning and season with salt and pepper to taste.

2. Turn the crock pot on high and let cook for about 5-6 hours.

3. Add the meat crumbles and pasta about 30 minutes prior to serving.

4. Serve and top with your choice of cheese and parsley.

This meal cost me about $25 to make but it made about 10 meals so each meal was only $2.50. I separated the leftovers into containers and it heated up well for lunch and dinner the next night. 10/10 would recommend.