Vegetable Soup
Author: Richard Olney
Recipe type: Soup
Richard Olney’s Garden Soup An outline of this recipe was provided in Olney’s autobiography “Reflexions” and I have fleshed it out to provide a more complete set of directions. Amounts are up to you! It can be adapted for almost any vegetable, and stock can be added in place of water. You can also use a recipe like this to clean out your fridge of vegetables because vegetable soup is surprisingly tolerant of differing flavors and mixtures of vegetables. This is a very basic recipe to which you can add practically any spice or vegetable you desire. And once made, it’s very easily frozen for future meals. And it’s a fantastic way to not waste food.
Ingredients
- 1 bay leaf
- A few springs of fresh thyme
- Sea salt to taste
- Stock or water
- 1 garlic clove – peeled and sliced
- 1 leek, white part only, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1 potato (slice directly into soup)
- 1 small handful broken spaghetti
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 1 handful of cut green beans
- 1 red or green pepper, diced or sliced
- Olive oil, a drizzle
- Grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Put the bay leaf, thyme, sea salt and garlic into a pot; add stock or water to cover and heat over high heat for a couple of minutes.
- Add the chopped leek, chopped onion, diced or sliced carrot, and potato (slice into soup) and boil gently for 15 minutes.
- Add the broken spaghetti, and the diced zucchini; cook for 5 minutes. Add a handful of cut green beans, the pepper, and cook until they are softer but still a bit crunchy (5 minutes?).
- Add a drizzle of good olive oil, put into a bowl and sprinkle parmesan cheese if desired.
- Of course, this soup is subject to whatever variations you think might be fun; a few leaves of fresh basil at the end, etc., a handful of young lettuce leaves or spinach, some celery hearts. You could add anything you have in the pantry or garden. Fresh ingredients are important, as is a good, fruity olive oil.