This recipe is adapted very slightly from a recipe in The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, a book that I highly recommend if you want to cook authentic mediterranean dishes that just happen to be vegan. Most of these dishes come into one of two categories: recipes from regions with very few resources and very little food and recipes intended for Lent. This one certainly fits into my Lenten plans, but feels rather luxurious for a fasting season. The vegetables taste very fresh and very much of themselves, and the pistou sets them off beautifully. Be warned, though – there is a fair bit of preparation involved in making this. I think it’s worth it, and if you have a food processor to do your chopping, it probably goes very fast, but I go by hand and chopping all those vegetables took ages…
I eat this soup with bread. It doesn’t really need anything else. It serves around 5-6 people, depending how hungry they are.
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olive oil 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped, plus 2 for the Pistou 2 onions 3 carrots 2 smallish zucchini (no marrows, but no midgets either) 250g green beans (or purple, or yellow, but you want the nice long ones, not the roundish ones) 1 celery stick 500 g roma tomatoes 6 cups + 4 tablespoons vegetable stock salt, pepper, herbs of your choice, but don’t go overboard. I used some mediterranean herbed salt. 1 big bunch basil 1 slice of real bread – pasta dura or wholegrain, but not cotton wool 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1/2 tsp salt 500 g potatoes 2 tins cannelini beans, drained
