Over-the-Rainbow Minestrone -- The Soup That Feeds a Family After a Long Road Home

Back on the road Monday. First run of the new year: Grand Island to Fargo and back, two days, thirty-one degrees below wind chill on Tuesday morning in the yard. I started the truck at 3:15 a.m. and let it warm for twenty minutes, and the diesel smoke hung in the cold air like a ghost, and I drank coffee from my thermos and watched the cab thermometer climb from minus two to forty-eight and felt the specific joy of a trucker in January who has the right jacket and the right boots and the right coffee. The year begins. The work resumes. I am back.

Fargo in January is a fact. It sits there, flat and cold and serious, and you deliver your load and you turn around and go home. I delivered Tuesday at noon, ate a pot roast lunch at the Perkins on University Drive (my regular spot; the waitress, Dina, has known me by face since 2011), and was back in my truck by 1 and back in Sioux Falls by 7 for the night. The hotel was a Fairfield I have stayed in many times. I ate the banana and yogurt from the breakfast cart as my dinner and called Dave at 8 and we talked for ten minutes about nothing — the bills, the thermostat, what Tyler had said at dinner. Marriage at a distance is held together by phone calls about nothing. I have always known this. I have always been grateful for it.

The cookbook copy-edit came back Thursday. Two hundred and eleven tracked changes. I made a pot of coffee and settled in at the kitchen table and went through them one by one. Most were commas. Some were dates. A few were tone questions — "this sentence reads differently than the rest of the chapter, is this intentional?" — and each one of those made me stop and think. The copy editor, a woman named Marjorie Vance whom I have never met, has the specific kindness of a person who loves words and respects writers. I accepted 184 changes. I rejected 27. I added comments on 9. I sent it back Sunday. Three months to publication. The title is confirmed: "Cab Kitchen: Real Food From the American Highway." I like the title. I did not name it; Sarah did. I think it is exactly right.

I made chicken tortilla soup Sunday, a big pot, because the kids were home from their first day back at school and Josie had already declared the new semester "worse than death," which is eleven-year-old for fine. The soup was spicy enough that Justin asked for more cheese. Amber had seconds. Tyler ate two bowls and then fell asleep on the couch at 8 p.m. because 15 is a tiring age. Dave ate three bowls because Dave is the kind of man who says "three bowls" as a form of compliment. I ate one bowl. I was tired. I went to bed at 9:30. A woman who has driven to Fargo and back and accepted 184 copy edits has earned 9:30.

The chicken tortilla soup I made Sunday was exactly what the moment called for — spicy, filling, and big enough to feed everyone twice over — and it reminded me how much a single pot of soup can do for a house full of tired people. This Over-the-Rainbow Minestrone is the recipe I reach for when I want that same warmth and abundance but with every vegetable I have rattling around in the crisper drawer after a week away. It’s the kind of soup that says you’re home now louder than words ever could, and after Grand Island to Fargo and back with a wind chill of thirty-one below, I need soup to say that to me.

Over-the-Rainbow Minestrone

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium carrots, sliced into rounds
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 cup small pasta (ditalini or elbow macaroni)
• 2 cups baby spinach or chopped kale
• Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

Instructions

1. Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 4–5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more, stirring so it doesn’t burn.
2. Build the vegetable base. Add the carrots, celery, red and yellow bell peppers, zucchini, and green beans to the pot. Stir to combine and cook for 5 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften slightly.
3. Add the tomatoes and broth. Pour in the diced tomatoes (with their liquid) and the vegetable broth. Stir in the basil, oregano, thyme, and red pepper flakes if using. Season generously with salt and black pepper.
4. Simmer. Bring the soup to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a steady simmer. Cook uncovered for 15 minutes, until the carrots and green beans are nearly tender.
5. Add beans and pasta. Stir in the cannellini beans, kidney beans, and pasta. Continue simmering for 10–12 minutes, until the pasta is cooked through and the vegetables are fully tender.
6. Finish with greens. Stir in the baby spinach or kale and cook for 2 minutes, just until wilted. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
7. Serve. Ladle into deep bowls and top with grated Parmesan. Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and taste even better the next day.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 245 | Protein: 11g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 40g | Fiber: 9g | Sodium: 620mg