Vegetable Puree Soup with Pasta

What better than a nice hot soup on a cold day like today?

When Lisa from Lisa’s Kitchen and Holler from Tinned Tomatoes asked us to prepare a Vegetarian soup, to be frank I did not have a recipe. The only vegetarian soups I make are houmous chickpea soup and lentils soup and that I had blogged about them a few months ago. All the other soups I make after boiling either chicken, beef or fish and make soup in the broth.

Based on a vegetable and beef soup I make, I decided to improvise by changing and adding a few ingredients and make a vegetable soup. (The vegetable-meat soup I make after boiling some beef chunks and adding a lot of vegetables which I thicken with rice).

When I made this soup last week I decided to make it as a starter because I wasn’t sure if the children would like it, so it was a good opportunity to try it.

Surprisingly the warm, inviting smells and the delicious taste of this simple soup must have brought back memories to them from the time when they were babies and I would make similar soups for them or else I cannot explain how the soup disappeared in no time!!

Today, I made it again but not as a starter. It was our main dish. As the soup itself would not be very filling, I decided to add small pasta to the soup. I added more water when boiling the vegetables so that there would be enough for the pasta to thicken the soup.

This is my entry for No Croutons Required, hosted by Holler from Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa from Lisa’s Kitchen.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Simmering time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS:

2 ripe tomatoes, peeled
1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and deseeded
2 carrots, chopped
2 courgettes, chopped
1 potato, cubed
1 onion, cut in four pieces
2-3 stalks of celery
4 spoonfuls of olive oil
1 bay leaf
1 dash of dried rosemary
1 cup of very small pasta
4 spoonfuls of fresh cream (optional for lent)v
A dash of paprika

DIRECTIONS:

Before doing anything else, wash the bell pepper and place it in a small roasting tin. Wet it with a few drops of olive oil and a pinch of salt and roast for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees centigrade.

When roasted on one side turn it on the other side. Remove and place in a plastic bag for five minutes and then peel and deseed.

In a large pan place all the vegetables and six glasses of water and bring to a boil, add the oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic and simmer.

When the pepper is ready add it in as well. Add the bay leaf and leave it to boil only for 10 minutes and then discard.
When the vegetables are soft remove with a slotted ladle in a bowl or a strainer to cool down.

Add the pasta, which needs 20 minutes to be ready.

Puree the vegetables in the food processor and add to the pasta.

When the pasta is ready, remove from the heat, add the fresh cream and stir. (During lent, fresh cream can be omitted and it is still very delicious.)

Serve and sprinkle with a dash of paprika or with croutons and parsley.

Tags: lenten, nistisima, Soups, Vegetables