Green Bean Soup Recipe — Light Vegetable Soup

Name: Green Bean Soup Recipe — Light Vegetable Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Green beans 200 g; Potato 1; Onion 1; Carrot 1; Parsnip 50 g; Garlic 1-2 cloves; Parsley, dill to taste; Olive oil 1 tbsp; Salt, black pepper, hot red pepper, dried green onion, herbes de Provence to taste

Green bean soup is a tasty, light dish found in many cuisines around the world. The general rule for making soup is that liquid should make up about half of its volume. To improve the flavor and look of the soup, it is worth lightly frying some of the vegetables in a little vegetable oil.

A light vegetable soup with green beans is the best way to bring your body back into balance after long holidays — tested more than once. After New Year celebrations, for example, when you feel half made of Olivier salad, a morning vegetable soup is practically medicine. I recommend it!

Why everyone calls green bean pods asparagus, I have no idea. Green beans, often called asparagus beans, are nothing more than the unripe pods of common beans. An amazing vegetable that is easy and pleasant to cook. Fried or boiled green beans are served as a side dish, and they go into salads and lobio. Green bean soup is simple to make and always very tasty.

Most often green beans are frozen or canned, so they are available in stores all year round. We usually buy frozen green beans cut into matchstick-sized pieces. You can cook with them without even thawing them first. Green beans stewed with vegetables make an excellent sauté that can be a dish on its own or a side, like stewed potatoes with meat, and it turns out great with both fresh and frozen beans.

Note that green beans should not be eaten raw because of their high lectin content. This is not good for your health — lectin is somewhat toxic, but it is destroyed by cooking.

Ingredients

3 servings

Green beans 200 g
Potato 1
Onion 1
Carrot 1
Parsnip 50 g
Garlic 1-2 cloves
Parsley, dill to taste
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Salt, black pepper, hot red pepper, dried green onion, herbes de Provence to taste

Step-by-step recipe

For breakfast we'll make a light vegetable soup with green beans. Fresh vegetables: a small carrot, a piece of parsnip root (you can add celery root too), an onion, 1-2 garlic cloves, a potato and fresh herbs. There's no need to thaw frozen green beans — they cook perfectly in the soup.
It's best to cook soup in a heavy-bottomed pot with a lid, so it simmers evenly over low heat. At some point we switched to ceramic pots, and they do the job perfectly. Pour 1.5 l of cold water into the pot, add the frozen green beans and put it on the heat.
Peel the carrot, roots and onion. Cut the carrot and roots into thin strips — a julienne grater makes this easy. Cut the onion into thick strips. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan and fry the vegetables until soft, about 10 mins, stirring.
Peel the potato and garlic. Dice the potato and roughly chop the garlic with a knife. Add the potato and garlic to the pot.
Add the fried vegetables to the soup. This frying is often called “passerovka”, which is not quite accurate. True passing means frying vegetables in fat so the fat draws out their natural color, then puréeing them in a grinder, blender or through a sieve. The smooth mixture is then added to cream soups (vegetable soup), sauces and so on.
Add the spices. Salt is best added at the very end of cooking. Season the soup with pepper to taste and add just a little hot red pepper or a dried chili pod. Add dried green onion and a pinch of dried herbes de Provence. Stir the soup and bring it to a boil.
Once the soup boils, cover the pot and turn the heat down to the lowest setting that still keeps it simmering. Cook the bean soup for 30 mins. In that time all the vegetables will be fully cooked, and you'll get a wonderful vegetable broth. The small-cut potato will start to fall apart. Salt the soup to taste. Cook for another 2-3 mins and take the pot off the heat.
Ladle the green bean soup into bowls, sprinkle with finely chopped herbs and, if you like, a pinch of hot pepper.
Green bean soup with hot pepper warms you up nicely in cold weather and gives you energy, especially after long New Year holidays.
With no animal products, green bean soup makes an excellent vegetarian first course. If you like, at the very end of cooking you can add 1-2 tbsp of small Italian filini soup pasta.