Quite simply the ultimate vegetable soup. Stuffed with fibre this is a great batch cook soup that you can freeze to enjoy when you need some comfort food. This recipe is adapted from recipes by Alistair Little and Mark Diacono combined with the brilliant vegetable stock recipe in Riverford’s Veg & Table magazine , Issue 1, p78. If you want to increase the amount of veg you eat, I highly recommend this magazine as well as ordering their weekly vegetable boxes.
Delicious Ribollita
This recipe serves 4 but I would highly recommend you double it so you have plenty to freeze.
Ingredients
Olive oil
100g parmesan cheese finely grated
1 onion chopped finely
1carrot chopped finely
4 sticks celery chopped finely
1 tablespoon fresh, chopped, rosemary
3 cloves of garlic
400g tin of plum tomatoes (not chopped because they have less flavour than whole tomatoes).
400g tin borlotti beans, drained and rinsed.
Optional,( but great for menopause) handful of wilted kale/cabbage/winter greens
1 litre vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to season
Small loaf of stale bread (sourdough is great) sliced
Method
Heat 4 table spoons of olive oil on a medium heat and add the finely chopped onion, carrot and celery to make a sofrito (base for many Italian dishes).
Cook slowly until soft and just starting to colour.This will take about 15 minutes and forms the base of your flavour so be patient.
Add the rosemary and garlic and cook for 5 minutes to build more flavour.
Add the tin of tomatoes, break up the tomatoes with your wooden spoon.
Give the mix a good stir.
Add the beans.
Add the vegetable stock & season.
Add the sliced stale bread to cover the top of the soup
Partially cover pan with lid and leave for another 10 to 15 minutes
Serve with a generous sprinkle of grated parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.
Here is the recipe for the AMAZING vegetable stock. You can use shop bought stock, but this is so easy and so delicious it’s worth a try at home.
Makes about 2 litres (perfect for doubling up the Ribollita recipe)
Ingredients
4 celery sticks thickly chopped
2 leeks thickly chopped
2 large carrots thickly chopped
1 onion thickly chopped
2 garlic cloves thinly chopped
1tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp peppercorns
2 parsley stalks
2 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
300ml white wine (optional)
½ teaspoon salt
Method
Put all the ingredients into a very large pan with 2 litres of water.
Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 min.
Remove from heat, put a lid on, and allow to cool before putting in the fridge overnight.
Next day
Sieve the whole lot into another pan.
Squash all the veg in the sieve to get all their flavour and juices out.
Freeze into portions.
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