There’s a deep bowl of soup on the table, green as a summer lawn, chock-full of spring vegetables, waiting to be ladled out. There are leeks and courgettes, tiny green peas, spring onions and broad beans jostling for attention. There are crusts of bread, toasted and piled with an emerald paste of basil and pine kernels, floating on the surface.
The toasts, sliced from a baguette and slathered with herb pesto, are there for pushing into the depths of the soup with your spoon, leaving the basil, cheese and oil to scent the warm broth. The soup recipe is a blueprint to be altered at will or caprice. Introduce other beans, borlotti or flageolet, or a handful of cooked orzo; finely chop green beans or tiny cubes of potato.
Thick with beans, both fresh green and creamy pulses from a jar or can, they establish the soup as a light lunch, especially if it is followed with a bowl of salad or, as it is today, with new season’s asparagus. The first spears of the year will be on our plates with slices of chalk-white cheese softly melting over them — a simple sauce, I suppose. Held briefly under a grill, the cheese oozes over the spears like a dressing. Eat them either as they are or piled on to a steaming mound of pureed potatoes or perhaps pieces of grilled polenta.
Green vegetable stew, basil pesto toasts
A soup-stew of spring vegetables and green herbs. Include green beans if you wish, cut into short lengths, or a last-minute addition of spinach leaves. If you have any basil paste left over, you can use it to toss with cooked pasta or to spread on cheese on toast.
Serves 4-6
Ready in 75 minutes
Ingredients
200g broad beans
200g young leeks
80g spring onions
200g courgettes
250g peas, shelled
1 litre vegetable stock
280g judion beans, canned or bottled, or haricot or flageolet
For the croutes:
1 small baguette
1 clove garlic
30g pine kernels
40g basil leaves
25g parmesan, finely grated, plus a little extra to serve
About 100ml of olive oil, plus extra for making toasts
Method
Bring a deep pan of water to the boil, then drop in the broad beans and let them cook for 5-6 minutes until almost tender. Scoop the beans from the water with a draining spoon and drop them into cold water.
If you wish, pop the broad beans from their papery shells by squeezing between thumb and forefinger.
Slice the leeks into thick rounds, then wash very thoroughly in deep cold water. Thinly slice the spring onions. Warm a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over a moderate heat in a deep saucepan, then stir in the leeks and spring onions. Place a piece of baking parchment or greaseproof paper over the leeks, then cover with a lid. This will allow them to soften and steam without colour.
Let the leeks and onions cook for about 10 minutes, checking them every now and again to make sure they are not browning. Slice the courgettes into small, thick pieces. Remove the lid and parchment from the pan, then stir in the courgettes, broad beans and the peas and continue cooking. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
Rinse the jarred beans and add them to the soup, stirring gently. (They are tender and easy to break up.) Season generously with salt and black pepper. Let the soup simmer gently while you make the croutes.
First, make the pesto: peel the garlic clove and pound it with a little sea salt. Add the pine kernels and continue until you have coarse paste, then introduce the basil leaves and mash everything to a thick green mixture, introducing a little of the olive oil if it becomes stiff. Stir in the grated parmesan, then the remaining olive oil to make a spreadable paste.
Get an overhead (oven) grill hot. Slice the baguette into rounds, about 2cm thick. Place them on a grill pan or baking sheet and toast under the grill until golden. Turn them over and toast the other side, then remove from the grill and trickle with the olive oil. Spread generously with the paste.
Ladle the soup into bowls and float the basil croutes on top. Pass a dish of extra parmesan around as you serve.
Asparagus, melted cheese
Any soft, creamy-textured cheese that melts well will work here. A log of goat’s milk cheese, sliced into rounds, is particularly suited to melting under a hot grill. It is a good idea to protect the tips of the asparagus with foil before you put them under the grill, to keep them sweet and juicy.
Serves 2
Ready in 20 minutes
Ingredients
12 thick and juicy asparagus spears
A little melted butter
2 goat’s milk cheeses, about 120g each
Method
Put a deep pan of water on to boil and salt it lightly. Trim the ends of the asparagus. When the water is boiling drop in the spears and cook for about 7 minutes, depending on their thickness. The spears should be cooked for long enough that they will bend slightly when pulled from the water.
Warm an overhead (oven) grill. Remove the asparagus from the water with kitchen tongs (draining them in a colander will damage the delicate tips) and lay them side by side on a grill pan. Brush lightly with butter.
Slice the cheeses in half horizontally and place them on top of the spears. Cook under the heated grill for a few minutes until the cheese melts. — Guardian News & Media
