Fillmeup: Veg, Bean and Pasta Soup

Shamefully, I have not much experience at making soups, which must be one of the most basic meals to make from scratch but I am redeeming myself beginning with this wonderful concoction. Recipe from here. As usual I haven’t followed it exactly.

My adapted Ingredients [makes a BIG pot of about 10 servings]

• 100ml extra virgin olive oil
• 3 onions (red and white), peeled, chopped
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1kg/1lb 5oz mixed vegetables (I used potato, sweet potato, carrot, celery, artichoke hearts, tin tomatoes and mooli), chopped into 1cm/½in cubes
• 3-4 pinches fresh [sightly dried] rosemary
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1.5 litre chicken stock
• 100g dried penne pasta
• 1 x 400g/14oz can beans (I used butter beans), drained and rinsed
• 2 fresh bay leaves

Chopped cherry tomato for garnish

Method

Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and fry the onion and chili flakes for 3 minutes

Add the rest of the veg and rosemary to the pan. Season with salt and pepper and fry on medium heat, stirring regularly, for 10-15 mins until veg is soft and lightly browned.

Add stock, pasta, beans and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer for 25 minutes.

The recipe doesn’t call for blending but I wanted my soup to be really SOUPY so I put everything in the blender and served with my chopped tomato.

Voila!