Spring vegetable soup with basil pesto

This soup is inspired by Nigella Lawson's delicious summer minestrone alla genovese from her Forever Summer book. 

I’ve adapted the recipe, swapping out some of the veg and removed the pasta.
It’s such a lovely soup to enjoy in the spring, light and full of the new seasons vegetables.

Prep time: 10 minutes  Cook time: 40 minutes (approximately) Serves 6-8

Ingredients 

For the soup:

• 2 tbls of avocado/macadamia oil 

• One large onion - finely diced 

• 2 sticks of celery - finely diced 

• 1 large carrot - finely diced 

• 2 cloves of garlic - crushed 

• 250g of new potatoes, 3 cm chunks (halved/quartered, depending on size) 

• 2 litres of homemade chicken stock 

• 150g of asparagus

• 150g of shelled broad beans (approximately 1kg before podded and shelled) 

• 100g of fresh (or frozen) peas 

• 3 small courgettes - cut into 2cm cubes 

• 3 leaves of cavelo nero or kale - finely shredded 

• ½ head of  broccoli cut into very small florets 

• Salt and pepper to taste

For the pesto (to serve)

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 100g of fresh basil leaves

• 50g of grated parmesan cheese

• 50g of pine nuts (you can swap for walnuts or cashews)

• 100ml of extra virgin olive oil

Method 

Heat the oil in a large wide pan

Add the onion, celery, and carrot & sweat until translucent and just turning a light brown around 10 minutes

Add the garlic, and potatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes 

Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for around 10 minutes 

Add the remaining vegetables & cook for approximately 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are cooked but still a vibrant green

Meanwhile, make the pesto by adding to a food processor all the ingredients, apart from the oil,  and blitzing, very gradually adding the oil until the pesto has a thick emulsion consistency

Serve the hot soup in bowels topped with a teaspoon of pesto and extra parmesan, if you like

Enjoy!