Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Nah, no mushrooms. Escarole? Maybe, add at the end. Not sure, though. Might over power it? Two things for sure make the best for me-throw some unpeeled garlic cloves in your toaster oven until soft-not burned, chop & add. Also, the ends from grating cheese: grana, pecorino,parm. Beans! Garbanzo or pinto are the usual, but there's nothing keeping you from trying a different kind. Not black, though. Fresh basil, and I've found that fire roasted tomatoes add a great taste. The dregs from last night's red wine. Bay leaves, fresh or dried, carrots, onions. Add stock or water & you're good to go. The cheese ends thicken it nicely. You should remove what's left of them before serving.

No mushrooms. Escarole, sure. Depending on the time of year, I've had minestrone with zucchini, chopped broccoli, kale, in addition to the usual suspects.

Thanks for the feedback folks!

As it turned out, while I was at the supermarket yesterday, there were so many great looking fresh vegetables that my original intentions for minestrone ended up morphing into a more general vegetable soup with mushrooms and lots of greens (can't in good conscience call it a "minestrone" at this point).

My soup ended up consisting of: rabbit/chicken broth leftover from Easter dinner, garlic, onion, fennel bulb, celery, carrots, zucchini, white and shiitake mushrooms, a drained and rinsed can of cannellini beans, a can of petite diced tomatoes, a coarsely chopped head of escarole, a coarsely chopped bunch of mustard greens, and a stemmed bunch of spinach (added at the very end). I stirred some leftover cooked brown rice in while it was simmering. We topped the bowls of soup with lots of freshly grated pecorino romano and a grind of black pepper. It was awesome and I felt quite virtuous after dinner! I'm looking forward to the leftovers over the rest of this week.