Spring Cooking with Island Menu - Spring Vegetable Soup
Another gorgeous day on the Guest Blog with Island Menu! Today Catherine is sharing her Spring Vegetable Soup recipe and holy smokes, it looks delicious! There are many more great recipes like today's on Island Menu, be sure to check it out. - Jenny x
At the moment we are having that funny in-between spring weather, where it is sometimes nice during the day, and sometimes not, but then cooler again in the evening. I visited our local farmer’s market (the Tasmanian Farm Gate Market) on Sunday as I often do and as always came home with a big bag full of veggies, including some lovely looking baby leeks and nice fresh pea sprouts. I had baked some fresh bread with a pumpkin, poppy and sesame seed crust the day before so knew I wanted some to make something to try it out with, and a spring veggie soup came to mind. This soup is so simple and had a really good flavour, not too heavy for this time of year but still a bit comforting for cooler nights.
Spring Vegetable Soup
olive oil
sea salt and cracked black pepper
clove of garlic crushed
3 baby leeks (or 1 larger) chopped
1 brown onion diced
5 baby carrots diced
2 handfuls of chopped green beans
2 potatos cut into approximately 1 cm cubes
approximately ¾ cup pasta
1 can of chopped tinned tomatoes
¾ cup purple cabbage chopped into strips
2 small bok choy
1 cup pea sprouts
4-5 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
For serving: rocket pesto and rocketini sprigs
To make the soup heat a good lug of olive oil in a pan on a medium heat, add the garlic, onion, leeks, carrot and potato and salt and pepper. Cook for a little while say five minutes, then add the beans and tinned tomatoes. Cook for a few more minutes then add the warm stock (4 cups to start with), bring to the boil and stir and then turn the heat down so it simmers until the vegetables are cooked through and soft but still holding shape.
Add the pasta until that is cooked and at this stage you may need to add some more stock depending on how much the pasta has absorbed. At the end add the purple cabbage and once that is soft add in the pea sprouts just before serving.
Add some pesto and rocketini on top for a little extra flavour kick and enjoy with bread or toast.
- Catherine
