Lovely Spring minestrone soup

 This isn't like a traditional minestrone soup, but it was very lovely!  It's got a great fresh Spring flavor.

We followed this recipe: 

https://www.feastingathome.com/spring-minestrone-soup-with-chickpeas/#tasty-recipes-20008-jump-target

Details:

- Only had 1/2 yellow onion and 1 bulb fennel at the start

- For vegetables we used:  Asparagus, sugar snap peas, 5-6 mushrooms quartered, 1 zucchini cut into large slices (halved, cut on bias).  It could have been good to have 1 chopped tomato in there, added at the same time as everything else at the end.

- The chick peas were a great compliment; wouldn't have been as good with a white bean.

- I ended up adding maybe 1.5 - 2 tsp more salt at the end (in addition to the 1/2 tsp at the start).  The stock I used was our own unsalted fresh made chicken stock.

- The 1C flat leaf parsley was important at the end.  Don't omit it!  The fresh tarragon was nice; I didn't use as much as recommended but probably should have.  I didn't have fresh thyme but that would have been good too.

- A good quality broth is important for this dish.

- I added juice from 1/2 lemon.  That was just about perfect.  definitely recommend doing this by tasting and adjusting at the end.

- They key to getting this right is NOT overcooking the vegetables.  I added them in the last 2 minutes of the cook-time for the pasta, and immediately took it off the heat after.  That was about perfect.

- I forgot to add any cheese, but shaved cheese would have been lovely as well.