In the warm season, you rarely want to eat a complex, fatty dish. It leaves a heaviness in the stomach and induces a sleepy state. Moreover, in the summer there are a lot of vegetables and fruits, and the benefits from them at this time of the year are maximum.
How to cook vegetable soup so that even little fussy people will like it, be bright, very tasty and healthy? Here are some simple but delicious recipes that will help diversify the diet and saturate the body with vitamins and minerals.
We are ready to break the stereotype that vegetable soups are something terribly boring, dietary and associated with unhealthy. On the contrary, it is a real storehouse of energy and an inexhaustible source for culinary inspiration. We will create from juicy, varied and sun-drenched summer seasonal vegetables.
Italian style vegetable soup
By the middle of summer, an abundance of juicy tomatoes appears on the shelves. We will prepare a refreshing soup from them, which even girls who are always losing weight can eat without restrictions. Calories in it – a minimum, and benefits and taste – a maximum!
In the southwest of Italy, in the Campania region, they came up with an ingeniously simple recipe for tomato puree soup – zuppa di pomodoro.
Combine tomato puree, fried vegetables, broth and spices in a saucepan, add water, a bunch of fresh herbs. Boil for 10 minutes and remove the greens. Serve with croutons and garlic, sprinkle a hot or cold dish with fragrant olive oil already in a plate.
Another miracle of Italian cuisine is Minestrone. This dish embodies the attitude of Italians towards first courses and food style in general. The soup is prepared from seasonal vegetables, adding pasta, rice or legumes as desired.
Add pumpkin and carrots to the fried vegetables, sauté for 10 minutes. When the ingredients become soft, add the rest of the vegetables and the pulp of peeled tomatoes, a little water or broth.
Beets and peas
Delicious vegetable soup is, first of all, a successful combination of selected ingredients. But there are some vegetables that are beautiful in themselves and do not require complex recipes. Such products are fresh green peas and young juicy beets.
Summer is the time to indulge yourself with soups from these wonderful vegetables. Let’s move from hot Italy to colorful Poland. People here respect the first dishes, and from a variety of vegetables – especially.
Cooking method. Place peas, chopped greens (without coarse stems), sugar in a saucepan. Sugar is needed so that the main ingredient does not darken. Cook until soft for a maximum of 15 minutes. Do not cook peas for too long, because every minute of heat treatment reduces the amount of useful ingredients in vegetables.
Drain the broth into a separate bowl, carefully chop the boiled peas, achieve the most homogeneous consistency. Combine mashed peas in a saucepan with cream, butter, salt and pepper. Add the broth, bring the soup to the desired consistency, let it boil. Garnish with cream when serving.
It is an indispensable product for a healthy diet, which is eaten at any time of the day. When you get tired of boiled broccoli, and cabbage salad makes you long for delicious food, it’s time to cook this beautiful and tasty soup.
Cooking method. In a saucepan, put all three cabbages to boil – chopped white cabbage, sorted into medium broccoli and cauliflower inflorescences. Add potatoes in small cubes. Fried onions and carrots are also sent to a fragrant soup.
When all the ingredients are almost ready, remove the bay leaf, add the peas and grated melted cheese. Stir until the cheese has melted. The soup is ready! For a creamier taste, you can add a couple of tablespoons of fat sour cream – directly to the plate.
French onion soup
Onion soup is a traditional French dish that dates back to ancient Rome. Today, the French have dozens of recipes for onion soups that differ slightly in composition. But among the constant ingredients are onions, butter and croutons.
We suggest cooking onion soup in chicken broth: this allows the dish to be more satisfying and will be a good option if you have just decided to switch to a vegetarian diet, but are not ready to give up animal fats right away. This unusual dish will open the bow for you in a new way.
Okroshka without meat
Historically, okroshka is a peasant stew made from leftover food. However, in the XVIII century. it began to be eaten in secular society. In one of the recipes that have come down to us, it was recommended to add salted plums and apple cider vinegar to okroshka.
Today it is customary to add sausage or boiled chicken breast to cold soup, but initially these products were not among the ingredients.
The classic okroshka includes potatoes, radishes, eggs, cucumbers and green onions. This summer product is familiar to Russians: it is difficult to find a more popular cold soup recipe.
Vegetarian borscht
Our usual borscht is cooked on beef or pork and is a fatty, rich lunch. The vegetarian version loses to the classic in terms of satiety, but can be an excellent alternative to the traditional one, especially if there are any contraindications for use.
Vegetarian borscht also contains cabbage, beets, onions, potatoes, peppers, carrots, but the absence of animal fats makes it easier to digest.
