Seasonal Vegetable Soup

Seasonal Vegetable Soup
Serves 4 to 8

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion, 1 stick of celery, 2 garlic cloves, and 1 leek, all finely sliced
3 diced small courgettes, yellow or green
4 large ripe tomatoes, skinned and cut into small pieces
1.5 litres/2½ pints of vegetable stock, a stock cube is fine
75 g / 2 oz uncooked pasta, 1 Tablespoon of tomato puree
250g / 8oz each of peas, broad beans, and green beans in one inch lengths
Sea salt and Ground black pepper to taste

Recipe
Heat the oil in a large non-stick saucepan and fry the onion and celery slowly for five minutes, until softened. Add the garlic, leek and courgettes. Stir over a low heat for a couple of minutes, and then add the tomatoes. Add the vegetable stock and bring slowly to simmering point.

Add the pasta and stir. Add the tomato purée and simmer for about eight minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the peas, broad and green beans and cook for a further five minutes, until the pasta is just tender.

Season the soup with salt and pepper.

Suggestion
Make this as the crops are ready in the polytunnel, and change the ingredients as the season progresses, through the summer and into the autumn
Try dwarf beans, mange tout, shallots, cherry tomatoes, and squash
Add cheese such as Parmesan as a topping
All the vegetable ingredients will flourish in the polytunnel, pick, prepare, cook and enjoy