RIBOLLITA THE GARDEN SOUP

Autumnal hearty dish, this is a real celebration of the autumn harvest with all the vegetable from the garden makes this a satisfying pleasure to harvest, cook and eat..

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 1 hr 10 minutes

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

1 large glug olive oil

1 tbsp butter

2 sprigs thyme

1 sprig rosemary

1 white onion finely diced

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 leek finely chopped

1 rib of celery finely chopped

2 carrots peeled finely chopped

1 kg fresh borlotti beans

OR

2 tins of cannellini or borlotti beans

OR

1 kg dried beans soaked overnight 

6 tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and chopped

1 - 1.5 litres veg stock

(recipe below)

400g mix of nero kale and Savoy cabbage shredded

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

If your using dried borlotti bens that have been soaked overnight, rinse and cover with water, pop in a bay leaf, few peppercorns, one sprig rosemary, one crushed garlic clove and a onion quartered, simmer until the beans are tender, 1-1.5 hours.  Drain.

In a large pan heat the olive oil and butter, soften the onions keeping them translucent for 10 minutes, add the garlic and soften for a further 5 minutess, add the carrots, leek and celery sauté for a further 5 minutes, add the beans and tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, simmer gently for 1 hour, remove the rosemary and thyme sprigs.

Stir in the shredded kale and cabbage mix and cook for a further 10 minutes, season with salt and pepper and serve with garlic rubbed olive oil drizzled sour dough bread.

Vegetable Stock

1 glug olive oil

1 onion diced

6 parsley steams

3 carrots diced

2 cloves garlic diced

1 leek chopped

2 ribs celery diced

6 whole black peppercorns 

1 sprig fresh thyme

Himalayan sea salt 

To make the awesome vegetable stock place all the diced vegetables and peppercorns in the olive oil and gently soften for ten minutes, add the thyme, parsley and approx 1 litre of water, bring to a gentle simmer for 30 minutes, take off the heat and leave to rest for 30 minutes.  Strain and season to taste with salt and pepper as needed, for a thicker more robust stock add back some of the vegetables and blitz.