Autumn vegetable garden soup

Tam West

I learnt this way of making a soup from Ursula Ferrigno's great book, Bringing Italy Home. It is very easy, the only time-consuming part is cutting the vegetables. I always boil kale before using (except when roasting it) so that it becomes tender, otherwise it is like eating paper.

Ingredients

100 g	Curly kale, leaves pulled off the stems, which are discarded
1	Onion, finely diced
250 g	Carrots, peeled, finely diced (Main)
500 g	Pumpkin, peeled, deseeded, diced 3cm
350 g	Agria potatoes, peeled, diced 3cm
1 ½ Ltr	Vegetable stock
150 ml	Extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves	Garlic, sliced
1 small handful	Parsley leaves
1 small handful	Basil leaves
200 g	Zucchini, thinly sliced (Main)
100 g	Beans, stalk ends cut off, beans sliced 2cm
150 g	Cherry tomatoes, halved (Main)
1 bowl	Parmesan cheese, grated for serving

Directions

1. Boil the kale leaves for 10 minutes in plenty of water, cool under cold water, squeeze dry and thinly slice. Reserve.
2. Put the onion, carrots, pumpkin, potatoes and stock into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
3. Put the oil, garlic, parsley and basil into a small food processor and process until smooth. Taste, season with salt and reserve.
4. When the vegetables are soft add the cooked kale, zucchini and beans and simmer 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and remove from the heat. Cool for 5 minutes.
5. Serve drizzled with the oil and herb mixture and sprinkled with plenty of freshly grated parmesan.

More of Ray's recipes using produce from the autumn garden

• Pork chops with Italian pickled vegetables and potatoes
• Roasted vege burgers with prawns and chilli mayo