Early Autumn Vegetable Soup

In a large saucepan heat your olive oil over a low heat. Dice your red onion finely and add to the pot along with the crushed garlic. Remove the stalks from the basil and chop them up finely; add to the pot (reserve the leaves for later). Slice your carrots into small pieces. I usually quarter the carrot and go at it, about 1cm or so cube-ish shapes. Add to the pan with your onion, garlic and basil stalks and mix with a wooden spoon to coat in oil. Place the lid over the pot slightly tilted (to let some steam out) and sweat gently for around 15 minutes.

Dice your zucchini, top and tail your green beans and cut them into 2cm (1-inch) lengths, and chop up your broccoli into small florets. Cut up your tinned tomatoes roughly (I just open the tin, stick my knife in and go at it) and add to the pot along with your zucchini and red wine and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Drain and quickly rinse your tinned beans and add them to the pot along with the stock and broad beans. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 3 minutes. Snap the woody bottoms off your asparagus and cut into small pieces. Add your green beans and broccoli and boil for a further 3 minutes. Add your asparagus and boil for another minute or so then lower the heat and add your chopped basil leaves, stirring to mix through. Turn off the heat.

Serve with a little grated parmesan and some crusty bread.

Note: If you want to turn this into minestrone, add around 120g (6 oz.) broken spaghetti to the soup when you add the stock, add the tinned beans when you add the broad beans (they need 5–6 minutes from frozen) and time the other vegetables to be cooked when the pasta is done. You may find you need to add a little more liquid as the starch from the pasta thickens the soup.