Mediterranean Vegetable Stew

The "Mediterranean Vegetable Stew" on page 324 is really somewhere between a thick soup and a juicy stew. Very much like minestrone, and in fact, if you threw some pasta into the mix, that is what you would end up with.  This dish is just bursting with vegetables - onion, carrot, bell pepper, fennel, zucchini, mushrooms, and spinach.  White beans add a nice chewiness, and the Italian seasonings meld well with the tomato and vegetable broth base.  I used a whole bag of spinach, as I like a lot of greens in my soups.  I omitted the oil for sautéing the veggies, using broth instead, and added the minced garlic at the end instead of the beginning to retain that wonderful garlicky flavor. Leftovers were even better the next day!