Warming vegetable and bean soup with pesto

By: Katy Holder
From: Dinner Like A Boss
Serves: 4 people
Prep: 20 mins
Cooking time: 25 mins
Photographer: Benito Martin

For some kids, puréed soup can be challenging, so I don’t purée this soup. I’ve added beans to make it a complete meal. I like to serve the soup with garlic bread – I’ve found that serving it with the bread encourages the kids to eat the soup because what they really want is the garlic bread! But this is optional, of course.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1 tablespoon	olive oil
3 rashers	bacon, cut into 1 cm cubes
1	onion, roughly chopped
1	garlic clove, crushed, optional
2	medium carrots, peeled and chopped into 1 cm pieces
2	zucchinis, chopped into 1 cm pieces
1 liter	vegetable or chicken stock
400g	tinned diced tomatoes
400g	tinned beans, such as butter, borlotti or cannellini, drained and rinsed
150g	frozen peas
60g	see method for ingredients

Garlic baguette (optional)

Quantity	Ingredient
50g	butter
1	garlic clove, crushed
1	baguette, about 40 cm long

Method

If you are making the garlic bread, prepare it first. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Soften the butter to a spreadable consistency and stir in the garlic, then season with salt and pepper, if liked. Slice the baguette at 2–3 cm intervals, slicing about three-quarters of the way through. Carefully open out the slits and spread both sides with the garlic butter. Wrap in foil and set aside.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and cook the bacon for 2 minutes. Add the onion, garlic (if using), carrot and zucchini and cook for 8–10 minutes until softened. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the stock and tomatoes, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. If you are making garlic bread, put it in the oven now and bake for 10 minutes.
Add the beans to the saucepan, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add the peas, return to the boil and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Divide the soup between bowls and serve with a dollop of pesto, or let everyone add their own pesto. Serve accompanied by the garlic bread for dunking.

Variation

You can also add pasta to this soup, either in place of or as well as the beans. Add about 200 g small pasta shapes (preferably wholemeal [whole-wheat]) to the soup in step 4 and cook for 10–15 minutes, or until the pasta is just cooked.