Pure Vegetable Soup

Pure and simple fresh vegetable soup. No stock but made with a bit of good salted butter. It’s chunky, healthy and low in calories and the flavour is divine, as long as you use extra fresh vegetables.

Moreover, this isn’t a recipe I’ve developed myself. Apart from a few different vegetables, there’s no need to change anything from Raymond Blanc’s original recipe in my favourite cookbook, “Mange“. When I first received a signed copy of it as our engagement present in 1996, I was secretly terrified at French cuisine: the French gourmet recipes for guests all looked complicated. Surely it was too difficult for me to try?

Years later, however, I realised with a little bit of confidence, the gourmet French recipes were much easier than they looked – and this pure vegetable soup can’t be any easier!

Chunky Pure Vegetable Soup

These days, I normally blend soups to a smooth velouté or chowder consistency (see pumpkin & leek, mushroom cappuccino, smoked garlic and arugula (rocket), curried cauliflower with scallops, or sweetcorn and red pepper soups, for example), so that serving this chunky almost seems D-A-R-I-N-G.
Is this life in the fast lane, darlings?

I served this to my French (Corsican) parents-in-law last week, as they’re total soup addicts like myself. Madeleine gave it a confirmed nod of approval, but she seemed surprised: they had soup with chunks in it growing up in Corsica. You know what? Me too! I remember the chunky Scotch Broth (Janice has a good recipe at Farmersgirl Kitchen) with lamb and good old Lentil Soup (Christina has another good recipe with barley at Christina’s Cucina) with a large ham shank, when I was growing up in Scotland.

Somehow, going back to the “bits in it” is somehow satisfying and, while not a thick, hearty soup, the freshness of the herbs makes this a welcome starter at only 55 calories a bowl. That’s before we add ripped off hunks of crispy French baguettes and lightly salted Normandy butter.

Fresh Vegetable Soup without Stock

The secret to this recipe is the freshest of vegetables and respecting the short cooking time of just 15 minutes.

I know it’s tempting to use up these veggies at the bottom of the fridge that may be starting to wilt – but please don’t! Gone are the days I made veggie soup with the sorry leftovers. Make your soup fresh and vibrant. Fresh pea pods in Spring? Use them. Peas are brilliant in this.

If you use extra fresh, there’s no need for any vegetable or chicken stock – just the butter gives that added French touch and brings out the taste of the herbs, just thrown in at the end of cooking. Chervil is best if you can find it, otherwise flat-leafed parsley is good.