Not Minestrone
I can't call this recipe Minestrone because it will offend some italians and I wouldn't want to do that.
it's inspired by it though and makes use of whatever veg you have available.
Finely chop a big onion.
Take a load of veg such as courgette, carrots, potatoes, cabbage or greens, leeks, whatever. As a general rule I always use some root veg and some greens, and almost always a courgette and some garlic. but if you've got fussy children you can use whatever you can force them to eat (or chop it so small that they can't spot it, works for me).
How much soup you get depends on how much veg you put in but I like to make sure it's got nearly 1 quarter onions family, ie Onion, leeks, garlic etc.
Do all this over a medium heat, not low and certainly not high.
Fry the onion until softened.
add the firmer vegs and fry for another 5 mins until it's sticking to the bottom of the pan, only add the stock about 3 mins AFTER you've got a good dark colour on the bottom of the pan, This nearly burnt stuff that's stuck to the bottom is caramelized onions and all the colour is the flavour, without this it's just veg soup and the warming amazing this this recipe is.