Spring Vegetable And Chickpea Soup With Cheese Toasts Recipes

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook the onion and garlic until tender. Mix in potato, broccoli, corn, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, and cabbage. Pour in chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer 20 minutes, until potato is tender.
• Stir egg noodles and white beans into the pot, and continue cooking 7 minutes, or until noodles are tender and beans are heated through.

Steps:

• Put the vegetables into a large saucepan with the garlic, rosemary, stock and sugar. Season well, stir, bring to a simmer and cover. Cook gently for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender.
• Preheat the grill to high. Whizz the tomatoes in a food processor or blender until smooth, then tip into the vegetables with the chickpeas and parsley. Gently heat through, stirring now and then.
• For the toasts: rub both sides of the bread with the garlic. Grill on one side until golden, turn the bread over, cover with edam and grill until it's bubbling. Serve at once with the piping hot soup.

Steps:

• Insert the clove into the onion. Put the onion in a large pot with the chickpeas, rosemary sprig, garlic, bay leaves, olive oil, salt and cheese rind. Add 5 cups water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about an hour, or until chickpeas are tender.
• Add the tomatoes, carrots and celery, cover loosely, and simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 25 minutes longer. While soup simmers, mix the chopped rosemary, grated Parmesan, lemon zest and pepper in a small bowl.
• Season the soup to taste and ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with the Parmesan mixture.

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onion and fennel and fry gently for 10 mins or until softened but not coloured. Add the asparagus, garlic and fennel seeds and stir everything around in the pan for another 1-2 mins. Pour in the vegetable stock, season, and cover with a lid. Leave on a gentle simmer (but for no longer than 5 mins) while you prepare the toasts.
• Heat the grill. Put the ciabatta slices on a baking tray and drizzle with a little oil. Pop the bread under the grill for 2-3 mins each side or until golden and crisp. Remove the toasts and rub the garlic clove over each piece of toast.
• Add the peas to the soup, bubble for 1 min to defrost the peas, then remove the pan from the heat and add most of the watercress, the herbs and the double cream. Use a hand blender to blitz it to a smooth, creamy consistency. Check the seasoning - you will need to be quite generous.
• Spread each piece of toast with a little goat's cheese, then top with a slice of ruffled prosciutto, a dollop of pesto and a few small sprigs of watercress. Finally, drizzle over a little olive oil. Serve the toasts alongside the soup, with a bowl of pesto on the side.