Hearty Vegetable Soup

Difficulty: Easy

Serves Four

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not the biggest fan of soup. However these unseasonably cloudy Sydney days allow me to pretend that it’s winter again and forget that a hot, sticky Christmas is but weeks away. Plus I seem to be pretty freaking good at making soup, so it seems like a waste of my talents not to make it!

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• Handful of basil, chopped
• 1 brown onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 zucchini
• 1 swede (turnip)
• 3 potatoes
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 leek
• 1.5 litres of water
• 4 beef style stock cubes
• 1 teaspoon plain flour
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Cut all of the vegetables into even chunks. You can peel them if you want to however I only peel the swede.
2. In a mortar and pestle, smash together garlic and basil.
3. In a stockpot, fry the garlic, basil, onion and leek until the onion begins to soften.
4. Add the rest of the vegetables and combine.
5. Now pour in the water and crumble the stock cubes over the top, stir well.
6. Add the flour, nutritional yeast and tomato paste and mix in.
7. Bring to the boil and cook until vegetables start to soften.
8. Simmer for a further 10 minutes.
9. Add salt and pepper to taste.
10. Serve with crusty bread and enjoy.