Minestrone Soup?

I just googled "Olive Garden minestrone soup recipe"

Here it is: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2...

Years ago I ordered dinner from a local Italian restaurant to go & when I was home eating the soup I realized, "Hey, I can totally make this I bet!" So after a little trial & error, I make my own in my crockpot & here's what I do:

Brown up some Italian sausage removed from the casing. Toss that into the crockpot. To this I add: 1 chopped onion, 3 minced garlic cloves, 2 cans kidney beans, 1 can cannellini beans, 1 brick frozen chopped spinach (a couple of bags of triple washed fresh baby spinach would work here, too), thawed, 3 cans diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning (any kind will work, garlic & olive oil, basil, Italian herb, whatever you like. I try to use a couple of different types), 1 box Rachel Ray chicken stock. You can throw in fresh herbs like basil & parsley if you want to as well. Pop the top on & let it go on low all day, or even just a few hours.

When it's time to eat I cook some ditalini pasta, put some in the bottom of the bowl & ladel the soup over. I keep the pasta separate even when refigerating leftovers because otherwise it soaks up all the soup broth & the pasta gets squishy.

It's cheap, easy, delicious & good for you!

I would get some of the soup from Olive Garden as a take out or 'doggie bag' item and try to duplicate it that way. You will be able to see it and know what the ingredients are expect the seasonings and hopefully you can taste them. A little trial and error and you should be able to get it right. You could also go to the library and check out cookbooks and read several receipes, it's probably the seasonings that are difficult; because even if you can taste them you don't know how much to put in. If you are reading more than one receipe it will be easier to figure out the seasonings.

Good luck --I love a good minestrone soup.