Rinse and slice the leek in half lengthwise. Slice it across into small pieces and rinse them well in a colander. Alternatively you can add them to a bowl with cold water and all the sand and grit will fall to the bottom. Gently scoop them out and dry well on a tea towel.
Heat up a medium soup pot on low flame. Add splash of veggies stock (for WFPB & Plantricious compliance), or a lug of olive oil and the sliced leeks with a pinch of sea salt. Give it a good stir and sauté for 5 minutes until they start to wilt.
Stir in the carrots and cook an additional 5 minutes then add the farro. Toss to coat and toast for a few minutes. Add the dry oregano, bay leaf, thyme, sage and fresh oregano sprigs.
Pour in the vegetable stock, give everything a good stir and bring to a simmer. Add the nutritional yeast and cook 15 minutes.
Add the crushed tomatoes to the pot together with the zucchini. Simmer another 15 minutes or until the farro is cooked through but still a little al dente.
Rinse the cannellini beans if using a canned variety and add them to the minestrone soup. Cook another minute or so until the beans are warmed through.
Remove from heat and taste. Adjust seasonings with more sea salt then add the fresh spinach or kale. Give it a stir so the spinach will wilt from the steam. If using kale I would cook it an extra couple of minutes as it needs a little extra time to soften.
Ladle the soup into bowls and serve garnished with the fresh chives and whatever edible flowers you have on hand.
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Notes
To make your soup WFPB Plantricious compliant make sure to saute in veggie broth or water and omit all oil.
Minestrone soups change from kitchen to kitchen, from garden to garden so feel free to get creative and use ingredients that you have available right now. There is a long list of suggestions and ingredient swaps inside the blog post above.
If using pasta instead of farro make sure yo cook that separately and add it to the soup before serving.
This soup gets better with time and stores well in the fridge up to 5 days. It also freezes well in freezer proof lidded containers up to 5 months.