Season: Autumn/Winter/Spring
Type: Soups
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 6 at home or 30 tastes in the classroom
Fresh from the garden: onions, garlic, winter greens (silverbeet, kale, spinach, chard), rosemary
Recipe source: Adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Everyday
Equipment
- metric measuring spoons and cups
- chopping boards & non-slip mats
- sieve
- fine cloth
- paper towel
- 1 medium knife
- 1 medium saucepan
- 1 large saucepan
- wooden spoon
- scales
- peeler
- serving bowls
- ladle
Ingredients
- 30 g dried porcini mushrooms
- 30 g butter
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 400 g passata or 400 g tin tomatoes
- 400 g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 300 g winter greens
- 5 l vegetable stock
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
To serve
- extra-virgin olive oil
- parmesan or other well flavoured hard cheese
What to do
Prepare the porcini
- Soak the porcini in about 750 ml warm water for 30 minutes.
- Remove the mushrooms with a slotted spoon, reserving the soaking water (it becomes the stock).
- Rinse the mushrooms briefly under the cold tap and pat dry with paper towel
- Roughly chop the mushrooms and set aside.
- Strain the mushroom soaking liquid through a sieve lined with a fine cloth into a bowl to use later as the stock.
Prepare the vegetables
- Peel and chop the onion.
- Heat the butter and olive oil in the large saucepan over medium-low heat and sweat the onion, with the lid on, for about 10 minutes.
- Peel and chop the garlic and add to the onions and stir for a minute, then add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, rosemary, mushroom soaking liquid and some pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes
Prepare the winter greens
- While the soup is cooking wash the winter greens then shred.
- Add the winter greens to the soup and cook until the leaves wilt.
- Remove the rosemary and adjust seasoning if necessary.
To serve
- Ladle the soup into bowls and use a peeler to shave a few slivers of Parmesan over the top.
