the need for “green” and a velvety vegetable soup
| May 9, 2012 | Posted by ameliaps under soup, vegetables, vegetarian |
If you ask me what food I could not ever give up, or actively choose to eat, that is greens, especially leafy greens. The kind you steam quickly then saute’ in olive oil and garlic, maybe chili pepper. And while I “play” city girl a lot, I really am most comfortable, and in my element, in the green woods or barefoot in the grass.
Nature calls us a lot, yet the other colors (city-grey, white-paperwork, blue-blues, etc.) tend to drown out the “green”, unless we make a concerted effort to listen.
Green soothes the noise and work and travel and busy-ness. When I lay on a grassy field looking up to the trees, I feel the earth pulling me towards her, in a cosmic motherly hug. There is something extremely humbling when we look up at a tall tree and realize that we are not the main living organism on this planet. My dream for this summer is to head out West and visit the Redwood forest to feel my minuscule self disappear in nature’s embrace, climb a sequoia and wander in the forest…
… and then there are simpler ways to get my green fix. Like this simple “minestrone” that can be rendered sophisticated by adding a tablespoon of pesto (green, of course). This Italian staple is a great healthy -yet tasty- soup to make when you have a few extra vegetables in the crisper drawer. If you would like to make it a little richer and layered in flavor, you can sauté the onion with some bacon or pancetta (or bacon) in olive oil before you add the vegetables. To go the extra mile (and give a more caramelized, rich flavor), you could toss the vegetables with olive oil and then slow roast them in the oven at 400F (200C) for an hour, before pureeing.
You can watch the video on how to make the soup (it appeared this past week-end on Atlanta’s channel 11):
| Passato di verdure (Cream of Vegetable Soup) |
- 1 large onion (or 3 leeks)
- 1 stalk celery
- 2 large carrots, peeled (if you like)
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 zucchini
- 1/2 bell pepper
- 2 cups spinach (or other green, such as kale)
- 3 potatoes
- 5-6 cherry tomatoes
- A few leaves of parsley
- 5 cups water or stock (vegetable, chicken or beef)
- Any other vegetables you may have on hand: kale, Swiss chard, fennel, squash, pumpkin, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, green beans, peas, etc.
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt and ground fresh pepper, to taste
- To garnish: a few slices of toasted bread (or croutons), grated Parmesan cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, chopped fresh parsley (optional: a tablespoon of pesto instead of chopped parsley)
- Clean and cut the vegetables into medium pieces. Place them in a large pan, with the bay leaf, and add water (or stock). Bring to a boil, then simmer, on medium heat, covered, for about 30-40 minutes.
- Towards the end of the cooking, add salt and pepper to taste, stir well.
- Remove the bay leaf. Blend the soup (with a stand or stick blender) in batches, until it turns into a smooth and creamy purée.
- Serve warm with a slice of toasted bread per bowl, some fresh grated parmesan cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, and chopped fresh parsley. Optionally, you can substitute the parsley with a tablespoon of pesto.
Serve alongside a simple salad, like a cherry tomato with purslane (or other green), seasoned with salt and olive oil, and dinner is ready.
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I am a lover of green and greens and cannot live without a minestrone/passata. I love adding some pesto too, or boiling a Parmesan cheese crust in the water for added flavor. Thank you for a wonderful piece of writing, I love your description of the colors in our lives.
Grazie!
Yes, I love the look of this spring green puree. I have some tagliardi–and have been looking for the right green soupy-saucy thing in which to immerse it. I think this is it!
Lovely post.
Many thanks, Nancy
Nancy: i think that is a fantastic idea to add pasta (in fact, it is quite common in Italy to add pastina to soup!)
WOW….talk about goodness in a bowl. I may ned to teach this to some of my Cooking Matters students (with all due credit, of course) as this is exactly the kind of cooking I like to inspire them with. Love the feet photo!
Steve: sounds like a wonderful idea!
I just made an Italian Minestrone soup the other day (a recipe from my other favorite Italian gal, Lidia) but have never seen this creamy version. It resembles the thick green-pea soup I grew up on, but sounds MUCH tastier!
Donna: in fact you can use green peas too… maybe add some crumbled bacon on top
I too am a lover of green. To me it represents life.
I like it, Denise: the color of life. Makes sense, because our planet is green, we breath through the plants, water is green too…
As a city girl myself, I do miss nature. On my almost daily walks with Roman on the NY waterfront, there is a bit of greenery, including some willow trees, and everything is very lush and in full leafy bloom right now. I have been eating kale and arugula by the huge bowl full lately. It’s lovely, as you say, that to get a green fix of nature, we can eat it – somehow it helps me counteract all the concrete and smog. This passata looks divine with that drizzle of olive oil.
Nicole: I constantly seek the “green” in my city, whether it is in the backyard or heading to a park. Fortunately, Atlanta is rather green. I wish I had some more “water” too: glad you have some to stroll by!