Rainbow Vegetable and Pasta Soup

"My mom - a native of Michigan but now a Texas resident - first made me a version of this soup when she was looking to lose weight. It is filling and chock full of nutrients from the vegetables, but relatively low in calories. I added pasta and changed the spices a bit to make my own version. It makes for a tasty, rainbow-hued meal at either lunch or dinner."

Submitted by: Kat Lynch from Eating The Week.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

2 ounces (dry), whole wheat pasta
950 ml broth (chicken or vegetable)
425 ml water
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 head of red cabbage
8 ounces green beans (fresh or frozen), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 zucchini, cut into small pieces
Grated cheese (romano or parmesan) to taste

How to cook this dish:

1. Put a small pot of water on high heat. When boiling, add the pasta and cook as directed. Drain and set aside if the pasta finishes before the rest of the soup.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook until the onions soften for about 5 minutes.

3. Add all the remaining ingredients except the zucchini and cheese, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for about 15 minutes.

4. Add the zucchini, bring to a boil briefly and then simmer over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.

5. Add the cooked pasta and remove from heat. Divide the soup among four bowls, top with grated cheese and serve.

Eating the Week packages food and nutrition topics into tasty, week-sized morsels. For each weekly theme, author Kat Lynch features 5-7 related recipes, reviews, and other information (books, articles, etc) on the topic. Readers are invited along as Kat searches for fantastic recipes, ponders nutritional science, and writes about successes and mess-ups.