Summer Vegetable Soup | Daily Mail Online

When I was training to be a chef we used to make minestrone. The golden rule, the head chef told me, was there should be so much veg that, once cooked, the wooden spoon should stand up in the centre of the pot. With that in mind, try this summer soup packed with lots of veg plus flavours such as ginger, lemongrass and oregano. You can add a little dried spaghetti or rice to make another variation, if you want.

Serves 4

PREPARATION TIME 30 minutes

COOKING TIME 25-30 minutes

2 onions, peeled and chopped

4 celery sticks, chopped

2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

1 yellow pepper, deseeded and chopped

1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

1 orange pepper, deseeded and chopped

2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped

10g reduced-salt vegetable

stock cube

1 tbsp lemongrass purée

1 tbsp ginger purée

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 small cauliflower, cut into small florets

200g green beans, chopped into 1cm pieces

200g mangetout

100g baby spinach leaves

TO SERVE

2 small bunches of fresh basil

freshly ground black pepper

•  Place all the vegetables up to and including the potato in a large saucepan along with the stock cube, lemongrass and ginger purées and oregano. Cover with approximately 1 litre of water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are just cooked.

•  Add the cauliflower, green beans, mangetout and baby spinach leaves and cook for a further 5 minutes.

• Remove from the heat, season, then add the basil when serving.

Nutrition Tip

Cauliflower is very low in calories and contains lots of essential vitamins and minerals.