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Sunday, 12 September 2021

It's Harvest Time - Summer Minestrone Soup

 

You go away for a week and let the garden get on with doing what it does best and this is the result!

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Actually this is just one part of it! There is plenty more chard, more apples, potatoes and some aubergines ready to harvest! After a mixed start we have had a good crop of most things this year. Apples, chard and courgettes  have done very well. Sweetcorn has done well and the leeks will be ready soon. No plums at all due to a badly time frost, runner beans took a while to get going but are now cropping nicely. Tomatoes have been a mixed back, those in the greenhouse and at the back of the garden have done well but those in the main planters by the house less so. We grew them from seed this year and will do so again. Onions vanished - we planted a couple of rows of red ones but no sign of them!

Anyway when you have a harvest like that a summer minestrone is the order of the day.

Ingredients

Serves 4 for lunch with some soda bread

An assortment of fresh vegetables for example:

  • One sweetcorn cob (corn sliced off the cob)
  • One courgette (diced)
  • Half an onion (diced)
  • Two small carrots (diced)
  • A handful of runner beans (sliced)
  • A handful of very ripe cherry tomatoes and a few green ones (halved) 
  • A small bunch of chard (stems sliced and leaves chopped)
  • 2tsp rapeseed oil 
  • 1 clove of garlic (crashed)
  • 2 Bay leaves
  • 1ltr veg or chicken stock 
  • 1tsp mixed herbs
  • Ground black pepper
  • Handful of small pasta such as orzo

Heat the oil, fry the onion and garlic till softened. 

Add the carrot, beans, chard stems and courgette. Fry for a few minutes then add the bay leaves, herbs and tomatoes and again fry for a few minutes. Add the stock and orzo, simmer until the veg and pasta is coked. Add the chard leaves and simmer for a minute or two more. 

Serve with crusty bread. 

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