A delicious summer green soup using seasonal vegetables and enhanced with parsley and almond pesto. It’s a good one for using up any garden gluts or produce that’s been lurking in the fridge for a bit too long. There’s plenty going on flavour wise and it’s substantial enough to be the main meal of the day.
Just because it’s summer, it doesn’t mean I don’t want soup, especially when that soup is packed with summer produce. With a house full of newly dug potatoes, courgettes and broad beans, I took inspiration from a Nigella recipe for Summer Minestrone in the September 2004 issue of Delicious.
The soup recipe included green beans and asparagus, neither of which I had. It did strike me as an odd combination. Asparagus is ready for harvest in the late spring but green beans are picked much later on in the summer. If the name of the game is local seasonal produce, it’s unlikely these two vegetables could be harvested together. However, I had some spinach to hand and an abundance of the other ingredients, so I used those instead. I decided against adding pasta and just used lots of potatoes instead. I doubled the amount of garlic and created a parsley and almond pesto rather than a basil one, which in any case didn’t contain nuts. A little more protein would not go amiss, I thought.
The soup was delicious and didn’t seem at all out of keeping with the weather, which admittedly wasn’t that hot. It’s simple to make and uses up lots of odds and ends. It kept us going for several meals.
Other Summer Soup Recipes You Might Like
- Caramelised courgette soup – Fab Food 4 All
- Chilled picante summer soup – Fab Food 4 All
- Courgette & blue cheese soup – Kavey Eats
- Courgette, pea and lovage soup – Lancashire Food
- Creamy sweetcorn soup – The Foodie Couple Blog
- Cucumber & celery summer soup via Tin and Thyme
- Lettuce & pea soup with new potatoes via Tin and Thyme
- Pea, potato and parsley soup with blue cheese breadcrumbs – The Veg Space
- Spicy tomato soup – The Foodie Couple Blog
- Tomato, courgette and sweet potato soup – Lancashire Food
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Summer Green Soup – The Recipe
Summer Green Soup with Parsley Pesto
Ingredients
Soup
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion - finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic - finely chopped
- 2 sticks celery - sliced
- 750 g new potatoes - scrubbed and roughly chopped
- 2 litres of water or vegetable stock if preferred
- 3 courgettes - sliced
- 1 kg broad beans - podded and shelled
- 100 g shelled or frozen peas
- large handfull spinach - roughly chopped
- 1 tsp tamari or salt to taste
Pesto
- 1 plump clove garlic
- 25 g parsley
- 25 g almonds - whole or blanched
- 25 g Parmesan cheese
- 50 g extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Soup
- Heat the oil in a large pan over a moderate heat and fry the onions for a couple of minutes.
- Add the celery and fry for another couple of minutes.
- Add the potatoes and garlic and fry, stirring occasionally for five minutes or so.
- Add the water (or stock if using) and tamari / salt and bring to the boil.
- Cover and simmer for five minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables and continue to cook for a further 10-15 minutes.
Pesto
- Place all ingredients in a mini food-processor and blitz until a paste has formed.
- Stir 1 tbsp into the soup and add a teaspoonful to each bowl served.
Notes
Sharing
I’m sending this summer green soup off to Jac over at Tinned Tomatoes for Meat Free Mondays.
The parsley pesto in and on the soup also makes it eligible for Cooking with Herbs with Karen at Lavender and Lovage.
The soup is packed with veg so it’s my entry to Extra Veg which is being hosted over at Jen’s Food this month.
I’m also sharing this Italian inspired soup with Jac at Tinned Tomatoes for No Croutons Required.
Soup topped with pesto is just wonderful, as are all those lovely herbs. Thanks for linking up to #extraveg
With all the rain we’ve been having down here Helen, pretty much any sort of soup feels welcome at the moment 😉
A very vibrant green soup, good idea to switch to a more seasonal selection of veggies too. Thanks for sharing with #ExtraVeg 🙂
Thanks Jen. Suddenly there are lots of very nice seasonal green vegetables about, so I think this soup may become a regular for us over the next few weeks.
I love getting so much produce and coming up with ideas to use it!!
How’s your allotment going Heidi? I expect you are well ahead of us.
I love soup at any time of year and the addition of a pesto in it is always going to be a winner with me!
Thanks Ness. I don’t quite know how we managed before pesto came along.
I love soup all year round and just had cauliflower soup for the dinner. Your green soup looks so delicious with pesto.
Thanks Angie, glad I’m not the only one to venture into soup in the summer. I’m a big fan of opus and cauliflower soup is delicious too.
Mmm sounds gorgeous! And you’ve managed to fit so many veggies in there! Love the idea of adding pesto to soup! Need to try it soon 😀
Thanks Nadia, the pesto is the only seasoning needed for this soup being in it and on it AND it’s delicious 🙂
I am totally up for soup in the summer especially with a large dollop of pesto.
Pesto just makes everything better Bintu 🙂
Hello. I really love the sound of this soup!! It is so GREEN!! All the flavours sound so wonderful…will have to give it a try!!
Haha, yes it is indeed green and so many shades of it too 🙂
I usually avoid warm soups in the summer, but I’ve had a little tickle in my throat recently. So maybe I should try out a lovely warm soup like yours 🙂
Riz
Chocolates & Chai
Ah Riz, it sounds this soup is just what you need, summer or no summer 🙂
What a delicious and tasty looking soup. I love the vibrant colour.
Thanks Nayna. I really enjoyed all the different shades of green.
Love the site! And this soup looks so pretty and nourishing!
Thanks Jenna, that’s kind of you to say.
lovely combination of flavours
Thank you, the vegetables were all good, but it was the pesto that really made it.
you know I adore a soup! this looks so wonderfully healthy and tasty and then with the added pesto! Wow. And Almond pesto too. Win Win… big bowl please?
Healthy, nourishing and delicious Dom. As you say – win win win 🙂
I love summer soups, they can be so refreshing. I just love the colour of this one too.
Thanks Dannii, it made a nice change to have a bowl of food with lots of varying shades of one colour.
Fab summery soup, full of flavours! I do prefer pine nuts in pesto, but almonds could be an inspired alternative
Thanks Galina. Pine nuts are my favourite too, but they are expensive and it’s always good to ring the changes.
I love eating soup in the summer. And stew. I guess I am a tad weird. But this looks so green and fresh and the pesto sounds yum. Another to add to my healthy diet (starting after I go on holiday).
Hopefully your diet will start after you come back from holiday Lucy! Well our British summer is a bit weird, so it’s not surprising we have strange eating habits 😉
Wow this looks delicious Choclette, so summery and bright green. I have way too much parsley in the garden at the moment so will give this a try! Thanks for linking to my pea soup too!
It makes a nice pesto Kate. We used the remainder on pasta which was delicious.
Like the idea of the pesto to add something extra 🙂
Yes it’s a fun idea Roz. I think I could have been a little more elegant with drizzling it, but I know you’d make it look beautiful.
I admit I have to be in the not for soup and don’t often think of it in summer but that looks lovely and fresh!
Well it was a bit of an unusual departure for me too Kavey, but I’m not quite sure why as we eat plenty of other “hot’ foods in summer.