Recipe: Make a Big Batch of Karen Martini’s Minestrone (and Thank Yourself Later)

Soup season is upon us, and there’s no better time to master the classics. Every home cook needs a good minestrone in their back pocket and Karen Martini’s comforting take, from her new cookbook Cook: Green, is an excellent place to start.

This hearty dish is built on roasted root vegetables, cannellini beans and a Parmigiano rind that slowly melts into the broth. Carrots, parsnips and white sweet potatoes go into the oven first, their edges caramelising before being joined by a base of sweated onion, fennel, celery and pancetta. Then it’s time for the pantry staples, pasta and cannellini beans, and a tangle of rainbow chard.

This batch serves up to 10, making it ideal for feeding a crowd or stocking the freezer. And as with all good minestrone, it only gets better the next day.

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Big batch winter minestrone by Karen Martini

Serves 8–10
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

4 carrots, peeled and diced into 3cm segments
3 parsnips, peeled and diced into 3cm segments
2 white sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 3cm segments
2 tsp fennel seeds
200ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2 large onions, finely diced
8 garlic cloves, sliced
5 celery stalks, diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
150g pancetta, diced
1 fresh bay leaf
6 thyme sprigs
4 tbsp tomato paste (concentrated puree)
400g tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
10cm piece of parmesan rind (optional, but worth it)
1.5L high quality chicken stock
1.5L water
300g green beans, cut into 4cm lengths
½ bunch of rainbow chard or silverbeet (Swiss chard), cut into 2cm widths, including half of the stem
A couple of handfuls of short or broken pasta
Flaked salt and freshly ground black pepper, to season
Grana Padano, finely grated, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Tip the carrot, parsnip and sweet potato onto the baking tray. Scatter with the fennel seeds, drizzle half of the oil over, season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Roast for 30 minutes.

Heat the remaining oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, celery, fennel and pancetta and sweat for 15 minutes. Add the bay leaf, thyme and tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the roasted vegetables, and stir in the beans and parmesan rind, if using.

Pour in the stock and water and bring to a simmer. Add the green beans and chard, and cook for 15 minutes; when 7 minutes has elapsed, add the pasta for the last 8 minutes of cooking. Keep an eye on the liquid level; it should be a thick soup, but you may have to stir in a little more water.

Adjust the seasoning; you can remove the parmesan rind if you like, but it will keep imparting flavour if you’re not serving all the soup at once. Serve hot, with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and some grated Grana Padano.

This is an edited extract from Cook: Green by Karen Martini published by Hardie Grant Books on May 1, 2026. Photography by Armelle Habib.