This is a tomato based vegetable soup loaded with spices, a variety of vegetables and topped with a yummy herb pesto. It’s one of those dishes you can make from the leftovers in your fridge and a couple of pantry items so feel free to mix up the ingredients as you see fit.

The spices are a must as is the celery and carrot but other than that you can pretty much mix it up as you please. I’ll go through the ingredients below with some potential substitutions that could work. You can leave out anything as long as you replace it with a similar quantity of something else. I use all the trimmings from the veggies t make a vegetable stock if I have time.

Mushrooms: I used button but use whatever you’ve got, the darker mushrooms can change the colour of the soup but this is mostly just an aesthetic thing.

Leek: replace with spring onion or brown onion if you like. You want something in this family to add flavour. if you’re a fructard use the green part of spring onion or add asofoetida to your stock.

Cauliflower and Cabbage: you can replace these with anything seasonal broccoli, brussel sprouts, zucchini – up to you.

Butternut pumpkin: use whatever pumpkin you have on hand or you could throw in some capsicum instead – basically anything with a sweetness to it. You could even add peas in with the chickpeas.

I love adding chickpeas for some extra protein but white beans would work too. The spices are a non negotiable as they add loads of flavour and the thyme perfectly compliments it all. So clean out your fridge and make a big batch of soup this week.

It’s a lengthy ingredient list but it can be made from whatever you have so no need to go out and buy every ingredient in this list, if you’re not sure what to substitute message me below or comment on Instagram and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 x leeks, quartered lengthways and roughly chopped

2 x carrots, quartered lengthways and roughly chopped

3 x celery stalks, cut in thirds lengthways and roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 heaped tsps cumin seeds

1 level Tbs smoked paprika

2 Tbs tomato paste

2 cups roughly chopped button mushrooms

2 x 400g canned tomatoes

2 litres vegetable stock

2 Tbs thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

400g butternut pumpkin, in 1-2cm dice

1/2 cauliflower (approx 600g), separated into small bite sized florets, stalks roughly chopped in 1 cm approx dice

3 cups shredded and roughly chopped cabbage

1 x 400g can chickpeas

Herb pesto (optional)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive

juice and zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup flat leaf parsley

1/2 cup chives (or spring onion)

pinch of salt and pepper

Directions

Put a big stock pot on medium heat, once hot add the oil and then add the leek, carrot and celery. Cook over medium heat until soft and then add the garlic, paprika and cumin and cook for 2 more minutes until fragrant.

Add the tomato paste and mushrooms and cook for a further two minutes then add the canned tomatoes and a cup of stock. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the remaining stock, thyme and bay leaf and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Add the pumpkin and simmer for 10 minutes more.

Add the remaining vegetables and enough water to completely cover. Simmer for 15 minutes and then add the drained chickpeas. Simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.

While the soup is cooking make the pesto: Combine all ingredients in a small blender or food process and process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve the soup with the herb oil drizzled over the top and a slice of warm sourdough with the herb oil spread over this too. So good.

HH. x