Whether Provençal, Corsican or Tuscan, these three vegetarian recipes are a great way to forget the evening soup. And a good opportunity to bring the sun back to the soup plate.
One-eyed bouillabaisse from Estérelle Payany
Preparation time : 40 mins
Cooking time : 30 mins
Difficulty : easy
Ingredients for 4 persons :
- 1 leek
- 1 large straw onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 kg firm-fleshed potatoes
- 2 tbsp. at s. olive oil
- 3 beautiful ripe tomatoes or 20 cl of tomato coulis
- 1 untreated orange
- 10 cl of white wine
- 4 large organic eggs (not too fresh, they will poach better)
- 1 bay leaf
- 3-4 sprigs of wild fennel
- 1 dose of saffron
- 4 slices of toasted country bread
- salt
- ground pepper
Step 1: the vegetables
Clean and finely chop the leek. Peel and cut the onion into strips. Peel and mince the garlic cloves. Roughly chop the tomatoes with a knife. Take the zest from the orange. Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices 4-5 mm thick.
Step 2: the broth
Heat the olive oil in a casserole. Brown the leek and onion. Add the tomatoes, garlic, white wine, bay leaf, fennel and orange zest. Mix, lightly salt, pepper. Add the potatoes and cover with enough water (1 to 1.5 litres). Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
Step 3: poached eggs
Add the saffron and mix. Remove the potatoes from the broth and keep warm. Break the eggs one by one into a cup, and poach them delicately in the broth: count 2-3 min of cooking so that the yolks remain runny.
Step 4: dressing
Place the country bread in the bottom of 4 bowls. Pour 1 to 2 ladles of broth per guest. On another plate, serve the potatoes with a poached egg. Season directly on the plate with a little salt and olive oil.
Pistou soup from Mary Castel
Ingredients for 10 to 12 people:
- 1 onion
- 4 tomatoes
- 1 kg shelled white beans (500 g shelled)
- 3 carrots
- 4 potatoes
- 500g green beans
- 2 zucchini
- 150 g small pasta
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- olive oil
- salt, white pepper
For the pesto:
- 1 bunch of basil
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1 glass of olive oil
- salt pepper
The preparation :
Peel and chop the onion. Seed and cut the tomatoes into cubes. Shell the white beans, thin and stem the green beans. Peel and cut the carrots into rings, cut the courgettes into pieces. Peel, wash and dice the potatoes.
In a large pot, heat 2 tbsp. at s. of olive oil, brown the onion, add the tomatoes, cook for 5 minutes, add the white beans and carrots, thyme and bay leaf, cover with 3 or 4 liters of water. Simmer on low for 45 minutes.
While the soup is simmering, prepare the pesto: chop the basil, crush the garlic cloves and crush everything in a mortar, emulsifying with the olive oil. Adjust seasoning.
Add the potatoes, zucchini, green beans to the casserole, cook for another 10 minutes, add the pasta and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Pour half of the pesto into the bottom of the serving tureen.
Bring the soup tureen to the table, accompanied by the rest of the pesto, possibly grated Parmesan or Gruyère cheese and fresh basil leaves for garnish.
Olivier Saillard’s ribollita soup
Preparation time : 30 mins
Cooking time : 2h30
Difficulty : Easy
Ingredients for 4 to 6 people:
- 300 g white coconut beans
- 1 small bouquet garni (parsley, rosemary, bay leaf)
- 1 small onion, studded with 3 or 4 cloves
- 2 carrots
- 3 stalks of celery
- 2 fennels
- 3 potatoes
- 3 tomatoes (or 200 g canned crushed tomatoes)
- 2 zucchini or 4-5 nero cavolo cabbage leaves
- 300g spinach leaves
- 2 sprigs of rosemary and/or thyme
- 3-4 sage and/or bay leaves
- Olive oil
- Parmesan (optional)
- Salt pepper
Step 1: white beans
The day before, soak the beans in cold water. The next day, discard the soaking water, and cook the beans in 3 times their volume of water, with the bouquet garni and the onion studded with cloves, for 20 to 30 minutes. They will still be a little firm and will finish cooking in the soup. Set aside in their cooking water (removing the bouquet garni and the onion).
Step 2: the other vegetables
Peel and medium dice the carrots, fennel, celery stalks and potatoes. In a Dutch oven, heat 3 tbsp. at s. of olive oil, then lightly brown the carrots, celery and fennel. Add the potatoes, zucchini or cabbage leaves (also cut), the herbs, the peeled and crushed tomatoes, and finally the beans and their cooking water. Add water if necessary to cover the vegetables by about 1 cm. Simmer for at least 1½ hours and up to 3 hours, depending on your taste. Thirty minutes before the end, incorporate the coarsely chopped spinach leaves, salt and pepper. As an option, you can also incorporate country bread.
Enjoy hot or warm, with a drizzle of olive oil and possibly grated parmesan.
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