Pasta Fagioli

My sister made this amazing soup the other day for lunch. Since Dad is the only candida-afflicted one in our house, for lunch we don't always eat candida foods. After we tried this soup recipe, though, I checked to see if it would work, and lucky for you, it does! Wait! Pasta? Yep! If you use brown rice pasta, this dish is suitable for those with candida (and it would still be good even without it too!).

RECIPE NOTES: Note that tomatoes, cooked carrots and bell peppers are semi-limit foods, therefore you should not eat this soup every day. :-)
Also this contains dried oregano - make sure all your dried spices are less than 6 months old to avoid mold growth.
Check the labels on your chicken broth or make your own.
We recommend Tinkyada brand rice pasta, as we have found it is the most similar to real pasta, though we suggest you cut out a little bit of cooking time if you like firmer pasta. Rice pasta is also a limit food, so if you want to reduce the number of limit foods in the soup, you can omit the pasta entirely.

Ingredients:
2-3 cups cooked beans (a good combination is red kidney, great northern and Garbanzo)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, grated (optional - cooked carrots are limited for candida)
½ stalk celery, sliced
2 Tbsp. olive oil or ghee
¾ cups tomato puree or crushed tomato
¼ tsp. oregano
½ tsp. salt
Dash of pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
6 cups chicken broth
¼ cup chopped bell pepper
1 cup grated zucchini
Approx. 2 cups uncooked Tinkyada brown rice pasta (shape of your choice)

Instructions:
Sauté onion, garlic, carrot and celery in oil. Add beans, tomato puree, seasonings and liquid. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add pepper and zucchini. Simmer 10 minutes longer. Add pasta and cook for slightly less time than required on package.
(If freezing this for later use, omit the pasta until serving the meal)

Original recipe modified from Cross Country Bakers