Winter Vegetable Soup
Servings: 6 serves
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
- 1 brown onion, finely diced
- 2 carrots, diced 1cm
- 2 stalks celery, diced 1cm
- 1 leek, white and pale green only, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
- 1 tin (400g) cannellini beans, drained
- 400 g tinned whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 1.8 L good chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 piece parmesan rind (about 50g)
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a heavy stockpot over medium-low. Add onion, carrot, celery and leek. Cover and sweat slowly for 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add garlic, cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes, stir and cook 2 minutes.
- Pour in cold stock, add rosemary and bay leaf. Bring to a bare simmer.
- After 1 hour, add the parmesan rind and the cannellini beans.
- Continue at a bare simmer for another 90 minutes to 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes.
- Fish out the parmesan rind, rosemary and bay leaf. Taste, season heavily with salt and pepper.
- Serve in warm bowls with a generous glug of raw olive oil over the top, scattered parsley, and a piece of warm crusty bread.