Summer vegetable soup recipe

Soup is the primary comfort food, the product of cuisine and Nature combined to nourish the soul. Bisques, broths, vellutatas, chowders, bouillons – whatever.

I love to make and consume large quantities of soup. It's my weakness, perhaps more so than chocolate. My family and regular guest have been raised on my borscht, my Asian egg drop soups. I express myself at best equally on miso and barley Scotch broth. 

Over the years the people I cook for have demanded I constantly update my soup recipes, introducing new ideas and flavors in their bowls.

I personally make soup year round, regardless of season and temperature. A ton of gold tortellini swimming in hot clear chicken consommé can restore peace and heal the deepest of wounds, whatever the climate.

Cold winter nights call for liquid nourishment, so a steaming cup of lentil zuppa can uplift spirits and turn a simple dinner gathering into a festival of laughter. By the same token in summer, a chilled bowl of minestrone or gazpacho, a mug of vichyssoise, or a room temperature cup of thick Pasta e Ceci can be of great solace in times of heat distress.

Here's the recipe for a summer remedy tested to replete perspired souls, the failsafe vellutata fredda, summer vegetable cream.

In Rome it can get fiercely hot in the summer. The humidity level is equal to a Turkish hammam and your brain feels (and therefore acts) like a gelatinous inert blob. This cool, refreshing and revitalizing soup is ideal when it's 40° C (104° F) out and sloth has completely overtaken control of limbs.

Do what you must to drag yourself to the kitchen and assemble:

100 g (1/2 cup) zucchini, roughly cut
30 g (1 oz) peas
50 g (1/4 cup) carrots, roughly cut
6 asparagus spears, tails removed
50 g (1/4 cup) whole wheat bread, crusts removed
200 g (1 cup) yogurt
Extra virgin olive oil
2 bunches of fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil all the vegetables until fork soft, save the asparagus tips and whir the rest in the blender with the yogurt. Stir in the oil, salt and pepper, and the basil leaves. Refrigerate and serve chilled in small bowls garnished with asparagus tips and whole wheat dry toasted croutons.

Save for the yogurt and croutons, this recipe works for both the vegan and the gluten intolerant. Yields 4 servings.