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Country vegetable soup
Serves 4-6 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- olive oil, to fry
- 1 leek, halved and sliced
- 1 large carrot, halved and sliced into chunky half moons
- 2 celery sticks, sliced
- 2tsp dried oregano
- 2 courgettes, halved and cut into chunky slices
- 1 large potato, diced
- 2tbsp tomato purée
- 2 vegetable stock cubes, dissolved in 1.2 litres just-boiled water
- 1tbsp sugar
- 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
- 100g Israeli pearl couscous
- 150g peas
To serve
- extra virgin olive oil
- Italian hard cheese, shaved
- dried oregano
- grilled sourdough slices
Method
Heat a glug of olive oil in a large pan, add the leek and sweat for 3 minutes. Add the carrot, celery and oregano, cover the pan with a lid and cook over a medium-low heat for a further 5 minutes or until everything has softened.
Add the courgettes, diced potato and tomato purée and season with salt and pepper.
Cook for 2 minutes, add the stock, sugar and tomatoes and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and leave the soup to simmer for 1 hour.
Add the pearl couscous and peas and cook for 10 minutes, stirring every so often so the couscous doesn’t stick to the pan. Add a little water to loosen the soup if necessary. Check and adjust the seasoning.
Drizzle the extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle the cheese and oregano over and serve with the grilled sourdough bread.
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