Use all your vegetables! A simple, flavorful "gourmet soup" recipe [including how to make vegetable stock]

Hello. I am Ayumi Nakaganji, a chef.

It's the season for delicious warm soup. This time, we'll introduce you to a recipe for "minestrone," an Italian hearty vegetable soup.

It uses a variety of vegetables as ingredients, and also makes use of "vegetable stock" extracted from the skins and stems of the vegetables. This soup allows you to enjoy the nutritional value and deliciousness of the vegetables to the fullest.

Turn vegetable scraps into delicious "dashi"! Double the flavor with "Vegetable Stock Minestrone"

The vegetable stock acts as a consommé, creating a mild-tasting soup full of ingredients. If you make a large amount, you can easily replenish your vegetable intake at any time.

Image: Ayumi Chuganji

Ingredients (Serves 4)
Bacon (thick cut)・・・80g
Onion・・・1/2
Cabbage・・・1/8 head
1/2 potato
Carrot・・・1/2
Broccoli・・・1/4 bunch
Shimeji mushrooms・・・100g
Canned tomatoes・・・200g
Garlic (minced)・・・1/2 tbsp
Ginger (finely chopped)・・・1/2 tbsp
Parsley (chopped) - appropriate amount
Powdered cheese... appropriate amount
Sake・・・1 tablespoon
Salt...1/2 teaspoon
Black pepper...appropriate amount
Olive oil...1 tablespoon

<How to make>

(1) Cut the bacon into 1cm pieces. Peel the onion, carrot, and potato and cut them into 1cm cubes. Remove the stems of the shimeji mushrooms and separate them. Cut the cabbage into 2cm squares. Separate the broccoli into small florets. Do not throw away the onion skin and stem, carrot skin and stem, potato skin, shimeji stems, cabbage core, and garlic skin. Use them to make vegetable stock.

(2) Put 500ml of water (not included in the recipe), sake, and the vegetable scraps from (1) into a large pot and place on high heat. Once it starts to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Image: Ayumi Chuganji

(3) After turning off the heat, transfer the liquid to a bowl placed over a colander and strain the vegetables (the volume should be approximately 400 ml at this point).

(4) Add olive oil and bacon to the empty pan and heat. When the bacon is crispy and fragrant in places, add the garlic and ginger and continue to stir fry.

(5) Add the vegetables (1) and stir fry.

(6) When everything has softened a little, add the stock from (3), the can of tomatoes, and salt, cover, and place on medium heat. When it starts to boil, simmer for 15 minutes at low heat.

(7) Season with salt (not included in the recipe), place in a serving dish, and sprinkle with olive oil (not included in the recipe), parsley, black pepper, and grated cheese.

You can use whatever vegetables you have left in your fridge for your minestrone. It may seem like there isn't much water before you start simmering it, but that's okay, as the vegetables will release moisture.

In addition to the vegetables mentioned here, you can also use celery leaves, apple peels, and pepper seeds and stems for vegetable stock. In addition to soup and miso soup, you can also use this vegetable stock when making curry rice or pork soup to make them even more delicious. If you have a lot of vegetable scraps, try making vegetable stock at the same time.

Any vegetable scraps are fine, but be careful not to add too many cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli or cabbage cores as they can give the dish a bitter taste. Personally, I like boiled celery leaves.

In this season when it's cold to the core, let's warm ourselves up with some hot soup. (Text by Ayumi Chuganji)
*This article contains information current at the time of publication.

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