Spring green minestrone

This dish is perfect for using up any leftover veg you might have, you can swap the vegetables around but just ensure they are all chopped up to roughly the same size so they cook evenly. As with the vegetables you can use a mixture of any pasta shapes you might have, just crush them up in their bag so they are all roughly the same size.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

600ml vegetable stock

a couple of handfuls of pasta (broken or crushed up)

1 shallot, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 tin cannellini beans, plus the liquid

1 lemon

150g green vegetables, chopped (asapragus, mangetout, broccoli)

100g green leaves (spinach, kale, cabbage, cavolo nero)

salt and pepper

a handful of wild garlic (swap out for 100g basil if you can’t get wild garlic)

50g pine nuts

1tsp white wine vinegar

50g parmesan plus extra for serving

Method:

For the pesto, wash the wild garlic and put in a blender or food processor with the pine nuts, vinegar, parmesan, lemon zest and a good glug of olive oil. Blitz to a chunky pesto and season well with salt and pepper.

In a large saucepan sweat down the shallot and garlic before adding in the stock, the broken up pasta and the beans with the liquid from the tin.

Cook for about 5 minutes before adding in the green vegetables, reserving the spinach and other leafy greens for the last minute of cooking.

Once all the vegetables are cooked, check the seasoning, squeeze the juice of the lemon in and plate up.

To serve, spoon the soup into bowls, top with a generous spoonful of pesto, a grating of parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.

N.B depending on what pasta you use, you might need to add a bit more liquid when cooking.