Vegetable Soup - Julienne Soup - Minestrone

Life-giving hot vegetable soup © kvalifood.com

Recipe with video - The base soup / julienne soup is a simple vegetable soup very similar to the Italian minestrone. With a few changes it IS a minestrone. But I usually make this simpler version and just throw in whatever extras I have on hand to liven it up a bit.

Ingredients

  • 1½ l stock (vegetable, chicken, or cheat’s stock)
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 onion
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 1 potato
  • 1 leek
  • 25 g butter or oil
  • 1 bunch parsley
  • 1 tsp salt (depending on your stock — cheat’s stock is usually salty enough)

pepper to taste

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtiaqBfcit8

Mise en place © kvalifood.com

Method

Cut the leeks into slices as thin as possible.

Cut all remaining vegetables into julienne.

Sauté everything until lightly browned in the fat.

Simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender but not soft.

Notes

Instead of celery you can use 1 parsnip, 1 parsley root, or 1/4 celeriac.

There are plenty of options for adding more flavour and body to the dish — just cut into julienne and cook along:

filling

  • cooked pasta from the day before — just warm it through in the soup
  • noodles cooked in for the last few minutes (check the packet for timing)
  • diced potato, about 1 cm
  • green beans
  • canned beans / chickpeas, drained
  • peas
  • corn
  • white cabbage / Chinese cabbage / bok choy / iceberg lettuce (white cabbage goes in from the start; the others just need a couple of minutes to warm through)

herbs / spices

  • thyme
  • coriander
  • a little tarragon
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 thumb ginger
  • 1 small chilli
  • grated lemon zest / lemongrass cut into small pieces

meat

  • lightly fried bacon / Black Forest ham or pork in julienne
  • meatballs
  • shrimp (just warm through)
  • tiger prawns (shell off and cook for the last minute or two, until pink)