As the weather has turned bitterly cold, my Aga seems never to be hot enough - and with the energy costs rising, I am also not comfortable cranking the dial to the point of bankruptcy in the new year. So instead of a traditional Sunday roast, I like to make a very hearty warming soup - full of those cheat-day carbs that I cut down during the week.
It is also a great way of incorporating any stray vegetables that are lurking in your fridge. It also makes me forage for pulses and different noodles/pastas I might have hidden away in my cupboards.
This is less of a recipe and more of some guidelines you can explore to make a delicious soupy stew of your creation. No two of mine come out exactly the same…There is a folk tale in Brazil, about a wanderer that comes to a rich man and claims to make the best rock soup he would ever taste…Of course, he makes a delicious soup with the rock, but also with all the spices, aromatics and other ingredients he sweet-talks the rich man into giving him!
My grandmother, being Italian, would always turn to bean soups and rich minestrones when there was a chill in the air and the country house was bursting at the seams with grandchildren, cousins and friends…It is a recipe that can easily be scaled up by just adding any other scraps of stuff you have at hand, with no need of a special shop or ingredients really - any rock will do! No wonder that whenever the weather cools and the guests pile up, I tend to do the same.
And any left-overs from this will make good quick dinners later in the week.
Ingredients:
Carb 1
1 can of beans, borlotti or haricot, but really any pulses you have at hand will do. If you have time to plan ahead, it is worth soaking dry beans overnight. Lentils are also a great and speedy substitute that can be cooked together with the rest of the soup.
Carb 2
3 potatoes - I had some quite sad ones in the bottom drawer, but I have used squash, pumpkin and sweet potato in the past.
Root veg/aromatics
- 2 carrots
- 1 stick of celery
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
Carb 3
150g of soup pasta like risoni, ditalini lisci, and selline – or you could use alphabet pasta or even broken-down capellini or spaghetti. Rice noodles also do a great job here.
Seasoning:
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1tbs miso for a umami quick fix. I know it is not traditional Italian cooking - my Nonna would usually drop in a used rind of parmesan that would do the same job - the choice is yours
- 1 tbsp of tomato concentrate (optional)
- 1 bay leaf or other dry herbs you have at hand
- 1 tsp of hot paprika for a warming rounding up of the flavours
Vegetables
Any fresh green that needs using, in my case I had a quarter of Chinese leaf left over from a workshop
1 packet of mange tout and
1 discounted packet of organic spinach
Serves 4-6
Method:
If you are using dry beans, soak them overnight. Discard the water in the morning. Cook them with a bay leaf and a garlic clove. Avoid the use of salt at this point, it will make the cooking time much longer. Cook it on a rolling boil for about 50 minutes, topping up with water if necessary. Skip this step if using cooked beans or lentils.
While they cook, start prepping your vegetables. Dice your carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Gently sweat them in a pan with some oil, after 5-10 minutes you add your potatoes and other root vegetables on medium heat. Fry them for another 10 minutes, and incorporate all your other seasoning.
Add the pre-cooked beans and another 1L - 2L of water - you need to have enough to cook the pasta in. Bring it back to the boil and then add the pasta. If you are using lentils, after 15 minutes check for water, bring it back to the boil and then add the pasta. Let it cool down for another 10-15 minutes.
I like my veggie with a bite like in Asian soups such as ramen and Pho. So when my pasta is cooked though and soft, I add the chopped vegetables, put the lid on and take of the heat.
I sometimes cannot help myself and add Carb # 4, a nice slice of bread to scoop the soup with!
