Summer Garden Soup au Pesto
This soup was inspired by a kitchen towel my mom gave me, it had a recipe for Soupe au Pistou (qui possede des vertus amoureuses), the recipe is in French. I’ve been wanting to make it for a long time. Pistou is basically pesto without the nuts. I love pesto, especially this pistachio pesto (with a magical ingredient.) In fact this Pistachio Pesto recipe is worth a post of it's own. This is a simple soup, and later this summer I will be able to make this soup from everything in my garden, except for the gruyere or parmesan, which I can source something similar from a local farmers market. And instead of using vermicielli pasta, I'll use spiralized zucchini.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 handfuls fresh green beans, stemmed and snapped in half
- 5 French fingerling potatoes, chopped
- 1 large tomato, chopped or 2 small
- 1 zucchini
- grated parmesan or gruyere for topping
- salt, pepper to taste
Pistachio Pesto
- ½ cup pistachios shelled
- 1 cup basil leaves packed cup
- ¼ cup Parmesan freshly grated; or ⅙ cup nutritional yeast
- 3 cloves garlic peeled, and coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil or less if you want a thicker pesto
- salt and pepper
- Creme de Cassis
Instructions
- Wash and cut green beans into 1 inch pieces. Put them in a pot with potatoes, tomatoes, salt, pepper. Add 6-8 cups of water and cook for 1 hour.
- Spiralize the zucchini, cut strands into 2-3 inch pieces, add to pot and cook over low heat until zucchini are al dente.
- When ready to serve, add pesto to soup, little by little, stirring to incorporate. Add soup to bowls and sprinkle with cheese.And as my kitchen towel says “All that remains is to leave it to everyone to appreciate the loving virtues of this dish.”
Pistachio Pesto
- In food processor or blender pulse the pistachios, basil, garlic, Parmesan or nutritional yeast, salt and pepper together until finely chopped. Next, while processor is still running slowly drizzle in olive oil. Scrape down sides and pulse again. Taste for seasoning and enjoy! ~When I make my pistachio pesto I add a splash of cassis – it’s my secret ingredient, it goes perfectly with pistachios and just adds a touch of sweetness, magic actually.~