Straight from the hills of Tuscany, this delicious Italian, full flavoured vegetable soup is made with kitchen cupboard ingredients and all those leftovers from the week. It’s a great budget friendly, autumnal soup that’s perfect for an easy meal when the nights are starting to draw in.
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 leeks, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
2 carrot, finely chopped
4 celery sticks, chopped
4 medium vine tomatoes, deseeded and roughly cubed
1200ml vegetable stock, plus extra water if required
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 tins cannellini beans, drained
40g parmesan, freshly grated
200g kale or cabbage
Method
Step 1: Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions and leeks and cook on a medium heat until softened. Add garlic, dried thyme, carrot and celery then stir and continue to cook. Next add the tomatoes, stock and fresh sprigs of thyme. Stir and bring to the boil. Pop on a lid, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Step 2: After 15 minutes remove the lid and stir in the cannellini beans and freshly grated parmesan. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
Step 3: Transfer â…“ of the soup to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour the smooth part of the soup back in the chunky soup and mix well. Stir in the black kale. Pop the lid back on and simmer for a further 5 minutes or until the kale has just started to wilt.
Step 4: Remove the lid, season with sea salt, black pepper and parmesan, then serve.
