Early Autumn Minestrone
Early Autumn
FROM MY KITCHEN
At the end of summer, the kitchen begins to change.
The days can still be warm, and there are courgettes, tomatoes and green beans to use, but I begin to want something warmer at lunchtime. It is too early for the deeper soups of winter, so I make something that seems to sit between the two seasons.
This minestrone is one of those meals.
I make it with whatever vegetables are abundant at the time. Here, late-summer courgettes and tomatoes meet carrots, onion, green beans and fresh beans. Nothing needs to be exact. The vegetables change as the weeks pass, and the soup changes with them.
I like this kind of cooking because it makes the season visible. At the beginning of autumn, the garden and market still hold much of summer, while the way I want to eat has already begun to turn towards warmth.
A little olive oil and lemon at the table are enough to finish it.
AN AYURVEDIC NOTE
Ayurveda asks us to notice qualities, both around us and within us, and to allow food to change as the seasons change.
As summer moves towards autumn, the air gradually becomes cooler and drier. Warm, cooked food can offer an opposing quality of warmth and moisture, while vegetables from the end of summer allow the transition to happen gradually.
This is one of the things I find most useful about seasonal eating: there does not need to be a sudden change. The kitchen can move from one season into another step by step.
THE RECIPE
Early Autumn Minestrone
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 red or yellow onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 medium courgette, diced
150 g green beans, trimmed and cut into pieces
3–4 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped, or 1 x 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
150 g cooked borlotti or cannellini beans
Approximately 1 litre vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
A small handful of flat-leaf parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil, to serve
½ lemon, to serve
Method
Warm the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook gently for around 8 minutes, until they begin to soften.
Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
Add the courgette, green beans and tomatoes and stir everything together. Pour in enough vegetable stock to cover the vegetables generously and add the bay leaf.
Bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for approximately 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender while still retaining some texture.
Add the cooked beans and continue to simmer for another 5–10 minutes. If the soup has become thicker than you would like, add a little more hot stock or water.
Remove the bay leaf. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Spoon into warm bowls and finish with parsley, a little extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
The vegetables here are a guide rather than a rule. Minestrone is particularly good for using what is growing or available as one season moves into another.
A MINDFUL MOMENT
Before taking the first spoonful, pause for a few seconds.
Notice the warmth of the bowl in your hands. Look at the different colours of the vegetables and breathe in the aroma before tasting.
Then take the first spoonful without doing anything else.
Taste what is there.
A SEASONAL PRACTICE
Seasonal eating does not have to begin with knowing which foods belong on a list.
It can begin by noticing.
The next time you visit a market, greengrocer or garden, look at what is abundant. Notice what has recently appeared and what is beginning to disappear.
Over a year, these small observations begin to form their own calendar.
