Leek and potato soup, one of the easiest soups, filling and delicious!

I am surprised when I see people buying already made soups, especially the very simple ones. Ok to buy them if you are going camping. Or if you are staying in a motel and don't want to eat out. Or if you don't have any cooking facilities, for whatever reason.

Ingredients and instructions: peel and cut the potatoes, wash and cut the leek, put olive oil in the pot to sauté the veggies, then add vegetable stock to cover and simmer. Blend. Done.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Leek and edamame Vegan risotto

Chop one large leek and wash it, then sauté with olive oil until soft. Add one cup of shelled edamame (I used the frozen ones) and sauté until the edamame are starting to cook. Add 400 g arborio rice and stir, when the rice is hot and starting to toast add a glass of white wine at room temperature (not chilled). Stir and after the wine has been absorbed add about 1 l of vegetable stock, one ladle at the time, stirring often until cooked. 

Serves 4

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Three soups

Roasted leek and Potato Soup with Leek Broth

Generally I sauté the potatoes and leeks in the pot to make this soup, but I wanted to try something different. So I cut the potatoes (Agria) and leek in big chunks, placed them in a roasting dish lined with baking paper, added olive oil and salt and roasted everything for about 30 minutes. I didn't want the potatoes to become brown, just lightly roasted on the outside, and soaking up the flavour from the leeks.

I washed the green leaves from the leek (the ones that are too hard to be eaten) and place them in a pot of  water with some rock salt. I cooked the leaves until I got a fragrant and light leek broth. I removed the leaves and added the content form the roasting pan, oil included. I cooked everything for other 30 minutes, then blended the soup with an immersion blender.

Pumpkin and Smoked Garlic Soup

Another good soup combo: Pumpkin and smoked garlic.

Here I just cooked some pumpkin (add a carrot for a brighter orange color) in vegetable stock, and before blending I added a couple of cloves of smoked garlic. More garlic salt and spices can be drizzled directly on the plate.

Potato and Broccolini Soup

And then broccolini (from my garden), and potato soup.

Simmer the veggies in vegetable stock, blend and drizzle with

extra virgin olive oil.

All these soups are vegan, inexpensive, easy to make, gluten free, and healthy :-).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Rice, Barley, Spelt and Vegetable Italian Soup

For this soup I used a packet of 3 parboiled cereals: rice, barley and spelt. The brand is Gallo – a mainstream Italian rice brand. Traditionally Gallo brand had rice only, so I was happy to discover this 3-cereals combo, which is easy to use.

Ingredients

1 carrot

¼ green cabbage

1 leek

1 celery stalk, with leaves

100 g fresh or frozen borlotti beans

a few parsley leaves, chopped

2 l water

rock salt to taste

black pepper

200 g Gallo brand mixed rice, barley and spelt

1 tbsp tomato puree

Extra virgin olive oil

Cut the vegetables and place in a large pot with the water. Bring to the boil, remove the scum that may form at the top, add salt and pepper and then simmer slowly, for 10 minutes. When the beans look cooked add the cereals (they are parboiled so they will take about 15 minutes, but cook them for at least 20 to get the flavour through). Add the tomato puree, and then remove from the heat. Serve hot or warm, drizzled with olive oil. It tastes better the day after.

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Foraging Soup

Foraging is back in fashion so get out in the garden (or bush, or field...) and start picking!

I got a few young borage leaves, some watercress, some puha, then I added a leek and a potato from my garden. I washed the leaves very well, peeled the potato, and cooked everything with water, then I blended the soup, added salt to taste, and finished with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©