**Summer Minestrone: A Delicious and Fresh Soup**

As the weather starts to warm up, there's nothing like a delicious and fresh summer minestrone to brighten up your day. This traditional Italian soup is made with a variety of colorful vegetables, including peas, asparagus, and green beans, all cooked in a flavorful chicken broth. In this article, we'll take you through the steps to make a stunning summer minestrone that's sure to become a favorite.

First things first, let's start by talking about the importance of using fresh and consistent ingredients. A beautiful soup is just like music - it needs to be created with consistency, harmony, and attention to detail. So, when it comes to our summer minestrone, we're going to use only the freshest vegetables, including English peas that are simply stunning in their beauty.

Now, let's talk about how to shell these guys. The shell itself can be kind of fibrous, so it's essential to remove them carefully. I've got my trusty English peas here and they're just beautiful. To shuck them, I'll simply pull off the shells and save them for later use - a great way to add extra fiber and nutrients to our soup.

Next, we need to chop all the vegetables into bite-sized pieces. This will ensure that everything cooks evenly and quickly in the pot. Our main ingredients are going to include chicken stock, fresh herbs like marjoram, and of course, those gorgeous English peas.

Now, let's talk about the magic ingredient - cream! A little bit of heavy cream is all we need to add richness and depth to our soup. We'll simply open up a can of chicken stock (or make your own if you prefer) and pour it into the pot, just enough to cover everything.

Time to cook! Our vegetables will take about four minutes to soften and brighten up in color. Then, we'll throw in a bay leaf, which will infuse our soup with that classic herb flavor. With the cream added, our minestrone is starting to look like a masterpiece.

Now it's time for some fun! We're going to puree a portion of the soup and add it back into the pot. This will create a gorgeous mix of textures and flavors that will tantalize your taste buds. To do this, we'll pop the lid off the pot and grab a ladle, scooping out about one-fourth of our vegetables. We'll then blend them in a blender (making sure to keep the lid on tightly!) until smooth.

The final touch is a sprinkle of fresh watercress for some peppery flavor contrast. This will make the greens really pop and add that extra layer of complexity to our soup. With a quick buzz of the blender, we're ready to fold it all back into the pot.

**Pesto: The Ultimate Summer Flavor**

Now, let's talk about pesto - the ultimate summer flavor. There's something magical about walking through the farmer's market in the summer and seeing those big bouquets of fresh basil that just scream "pesto time!" We'll use this beautiful herb to create a delicious and vibrant pesto sauce that will elevate our minestrone to new heights.

We start by combining some garlic, toasted pine nuts (which are simply divine once they're pureed), fresh basil leaves, parmesan reggiano cheese, and extra virgin olive oil in a food processor. We'll give it all a quick buzz until smooth and creamy - the perfect consistency for our summer minestrone.

**The Finishing Touches**

Our soup is now ready to be garnished with some fresh basil leaves on top, which adds an instant pop of color and freshness. To take it to another level, we've added a sprinkle of fresh mint to our pesto sauce - the perfect balance of herbs to enhance that summery flavor.

**Summer Minestrone: A True Masterpiece**

Our summer minestrone is now complete - a beautiful, vibrant soup filled with all the flavors and textures of the season. The combination of chicken stock, cream, and fresh vegetables creates a rich and satisfying broth that's sure to warm your heart on even the chilliest of days.

We've added some toasted pine nuts and parmesan reggiano cheese for extra depth and complexity, making this soup truly unforgettable. With its bright colors, vibrant flavors, and satisfying textures, our summer minestrone is a true masterpiece that will leave you wanting more.

In conclusion, with these simple steps, you can create your own stunning summer minestrone at home. Don't be afraid to experiment with different ingredients and flavors - after all, that's what makes cooking so magical!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: encreamy rich minestrone so we're going to take a little bit of some base flavor here right we've got a pot i'm going to take a little bit of extra virgin olive oil let this start to warm up and we're going to take our garlic alright we're just going to crush up my hands i'm gonna take out two cloves just like that all right put the rest of these guys back i'm gonna take our two cloves and i'm just gonna kind of rough chop the garlic it doesn't have to be perfect this is a very rustic beautiful soup same thing with the onion and then we're going to add some margin to this now marjoram i'm a big fan look at it it looks just like oregano but it smells so much better than oregano regular it's kind of flat i think well margin is just so intense so what i'm going to do is i'm going to take the leaves and just kind of strip it off and kind of let that start to warm up a little bit take a spoon give it a little stir and let that start to kind of cook away just a little bit not much color let's talk about some of the vegetables we've got like green vegetables the green minestrone all right so we've got all right some green beans we've got some english peas got some asparagus and we got two ribs of celery i've also got some watercress i'm going to throw in right when we puree it though so it has this very intense kind of green flavor to it so what we do is we're going to take all these vegetables and we're going to cut the larger vegetables up in relatively consistent sizes and again it doesn't have to be beautiful just you know just kind of like consistent so it all kind of kind of falls apart and gets soft and then with the peas what we're going to do is we're going to shell these guys because the shell itself can be kind of fibrous and i got these beautiful english peas and look at these things man so i'm going to shuck all these down chop all the vegetables and then put everything into the pot all right man they're gonna have a little chicken stock and a bailey and just let it steam just for a couple minutes okay so we've got a bay leaf that we're gonna fish out for puree so you gotta remind me to do that a little later right and then some chicken stock here i'm gonna open this up and just put enough chicken stock just to cover everything and the vegetables are gonna cook for probably four minutes just to really kind of freshen up the color until they're really uber bright green and then we'll throw in a bay leaf all right and we're good to go now what we're gonna do is also hit this with just a touch of heavy cream right now so it's nice and rich and now we're gonna puree a portion of the soup so we're going to have this gorgeous mix of textures and flavors all right so we're going to pop the lid off then what we're going to do is grab a ladle and we're going to take probably maybe a fourth of our vegetables here look how steamy that isn't beautiful it just smells like sweet cream and margarine and we're going to put into a blender i'm just going to zap all this down which by the way would make a delicious sauce all right cool into the blender the steam build up in this will throw the lid off so what you want to do is take out a little insurance policy by taking a towel putting it over top the lid keep the lid down then buzz it up and you're good to go all right perfect it looks really beautiful then the last thing i want to add to the soup just for a little bit of flavor contrast some peppery hydroponic watercress it's going to make the greens really really pop so we'll take about a half a bunch of watercress and if you don't have a watercress parsley is really nice or you can just leave it out but i'm telling you the the balance between the spiciness from the watercress the horseradish flavor and the cream is sensational let me give this one more buzz all right per towel back on all right and perfect i know what we're going to do we're going to fold this right back into our soup all right and give it one more stir to mix in all those flavors and then all of a sudden it's really like intense it tastes everything the peas the asparagus the green beans the sweet cream the marjoram and ladies and gentlemen summer minestrone is finished so we had a little bit of salt a little bit of fresh cracked pepper and we are good to go and it's kind of sitting there ready to warm back up and we're ready to serve the whole thing and we're going to take a food processor and start to put this together i love pesto to me pesto's summer right when the weather starts to warm up and you see like these big beautiful bouquets of basil at the farmer's market i'm ready to go i put peso on baked potatoes i put pesto on omelettes i use it for a lot of stuff all right so we got some garlic we've got our toasted pine nuts here all right and they're nice and brown and the pine nut itself once it purees is going to give the pests a real creamy texture it's really good so we got that got some gorgeous herbs back here so we're going to start off a little bit of basil fresh mint we're going to throw it right on top parmesan reggiano extra virgin olive oil and just give it a little grind beautiful basil mint toasted pine nuts fantastic flavor this is going to be grape on top of that as a garnish out of sight guys we got that i like it i like it a lot we've got a beautiful summer time in australia which is a great dish very simple to make fresh vegetables a little bit chicken stock some cream absolutely awesome it's a great texture really vibrant color all right it's going to look like that look at that beautiful all right we're going to garnish just a little bit of a pesto we took it to another level we added a little bit of fresh mint to it so it's actually a basil mint pesto fresh and clean all about delicious summertime flavors fresh basil leaf or on top and then just some extra virgin olive oil soups on ladies and gentlemen look at that they're gorgeous youcreamy rich minestrone so we're going to take a little bit of some base flavor here right we've got a pot i'm going to take a little bit of extra virgin olive oil let this start to warm up and we're going to take our garlic alright we're just going to crush up my hands i'm gonna take out two cloves just like that all right put the rest of these guys back i'm gonna take our two cloves and i'm just gonna kind of rough chop the garlic it doesn't have to be perfect this is a very rustic beautiful soup same thing with the onion and then we're going to add some margin to this now marjoram i'm a big fan look at it it looks just like oregano but it smells so much better than oregano regular it's kind of flat i think well margin is just so intense so what i'm going to do is i'm going to take the leaves and just kind of strip it off and kind of let that start to warm up a little bit take a spoon give it a little stir and let that start to kind of cook away just a little bit not much color let's talk about some of the vegetables we've got like green vegetables the green minestrone all right so we've got all right some green beans we've got some english peas got some asparagus and we got two ribs of celery i've also got some watercress i'm going to throw in right when we puree it though so it has this very intense kind of green flavor to it so what we do is we're going to take all these vegetables and we're going to cut the larger vegetables up in relatively consistent sizes and again it doesn't have to be beautiful just you know just kind of like consistent so it all kind of kind of falls apart and gets soft and then with the peas what we're going to do is we're going to shell these guys because the shell itself can be kind of fibrous and i got these beautiful english peas and look at these things man so i'm going to shuck all these down chop all the vegetables and then put everything into the pot all right man they're gonna have a little chicken stock and a bailey and just let it steam just for a couple minutes okay so we've got a bay leaf that we're gonna fish out for puree so you gotta remind me to do that a little later right and then some chicken stock here i'm gonna open this up and just put enough chicken stock just to cover everything and the vegetables are gonna cook for probably four minutes just to really kind of freshen up the color until they're really uber bright green and then we'll throw in a bay leaf all right and we're good to go now what we're gonna do is also hit this with just a touch of heavy cream right now so it's nice and rich and now we're gonna puree a portion of the soup so we're going to have this gorgeous mix of textures and flavors all right so we're going to pop the lid off then what we're going to do is grab a ladle and we're going to take probably maybe a fourth of our vegetables here look how steamy that isn't beautiful it just smells like sweet cream and margarine and we're going to put into a blender i'm just going to zap all this down which by the way would make a delicious sauce all right cool into the blender the steam build up in this will throw the lid off so what you want to do is take out a little insurance policy by taking a towel putting it over top the lid keep the lid down then buzz it up and you're good to go all right perfect it looks really beautiful then the last thing i want to add to the soup just for a little bit of flavor contrast some peppery hydroponic watercress it's going to make the greens really really pop so we'll take about a half a bunch of watercress and if you don't have a watercress parsley is really nice or you can just leave it out but i'm telling you the the balance between the spiciness from the watercress the horseradish flavor and the cream is sensational let me give this one more buzz all right per towel back on all right and perfect i know what we're going to do we're going to fold this right back into our soup all right and give it one more stir to mix in all those flavors and then all of a sudden it's really like intense it tastes everything the peas the asparagus the green beans the sweet cream the marjoram and ladies and gentlemen summer minestrone is finished so we had a little bit of salt a little bit of fresh cracked pepper and we are good to go and it's kind of sitting there ready to warm back up and we're ready to serve the whole thing and we're going to take a food processor and start to put this together i love pesto to me pesto's summer right when the weather starts to warm up and you see like these big beautiful bouquets of basil at the farmer's market i'm ready to go i put peso on baked potatoes i put pesto on omelettes i use it for a lot of stuff all right so we got some garlic we've got our toasted pine nuts here all right and they're nice and brown and the pine nut itself once it purees is going to give the pests a real creamy texture it's really good so we got that got some gorgeous herbs back here so we're going to start off a little bit of basil fresh mint we're going to throw it right on top parmesan reggiano extra virgin olive oil and just give it a little grind beautiful basil mint toasted pine nuts fantastic flavor this is going to be grape on top of that as a garnish out of sight guys we got that i like it i like it a lot we've got a beautiful summer time in australia which is a great dish very simple to make fresh vegetables a little bit chicken stock some cream absolutely awesome it's a great texture really vibrant color all right it's going to look like that look at that beautiful all right we're going to garnish just a little bit of a pesto we took it to another level we added a little bit of fresh mint to it so it's actually a basil mint pesto fresh and clean all about delicious summertime flavors fresh basil leaf or on top and then just some extra virgin olive oil soups on ladies and gentlemen look at that they're gorgeous you\n"