I know that my last post was about soup (a very scrumptious tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons, by the way), but this one is so much more than just a soup. It’s deconstructed soup. I’ve seen a few bloggers playing around with this idea, and I absolutely love it.
Food Bloggers of Canada has a series called On Board in 20 that is all about quick family-style meals, and one of my favourites is Lemon Chicken Build-Your-Own Soup. Genius!
I also saw a Deconstructed Ramen at Tribeca Nutrition that sounds so interesting. In fact, she has a whole post on how to deconstruct meals for your family to help reduce mealtime battles. If your kids are picky eaters and struggle to get them to eat, deconstructed meals can be helpful. Everyone gets to customize their own dinner, and have fun doing it.
My go-to soup is Minestrone, so that’s the soup I chose to deconstruct. It turned out to be a great choice, because if someone isn’t interested in soup, they can build their own pasta instead. Cole and Bennett both skipped the broth and just went for the pasta with sauce and toppings.
I made mine into soup, and wow! I think it may be even better than regular Minestrone soup. Since hot broth is poured over the ingredients instead of simmering in a pot, the flavours were more vibrant. Next time I might try fresh tomatoes instead of canned for an even fresher flavor.
Do you want to hear the best part? This is so crazy fast! I had food on the table in 10 minutes. It all depends on how long the pasta takes to cook, and while it’s cooking and the broth is heating up, all you need to do is pour ingredients into serving bowls. I didn’t even heat anything up besides the broth and pasta. That way the soup wasn’t too hot for the kids. If you’re feeding adults, you could give some of the ingredients a quick warm-up in the microwave.
We all had fun with this meal, and almost everyone ate their dinner. Ayla did not. She really enjoyed building her soup, but when it came to actually eating it, she wasn’t interested. She’s been doing that a lot lately. 3-year-olds — can’t live with them….pass the wine. Well, at least two out of three whine critics approved this meal.
A family-style dinner where everyone can customize their own minestrone soup or pasta dish.
Ingredients
- 1 carton (900 ml) vegetable broth
- 1 cup pasta
- 1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
- 1 can (14 oz) kidney beans, rinsed
- 2 cups pasta sauce
- 1/4 cup sliced green onions
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Heat vegetable broth in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Cook pasta according to package directions.
- While pasta cooks and broth heats up, place remaining ingredients into separate serving bowls.
- Arrange the hot broth, cooked pasta, and bowls of ingredients on the dinner table and let everyone build their own soup (or pasta).
[…] Deconstructed minestrone soup. I think the concept of a deconstructed meal is a great one for families with picky eaters. It's also handy for people hosting a crowd of people with many different tastes and diets. I just set out all the ingredients and let everyone choose what they want. It's less work for me, and more fun for them. […]