Amanda Ursell
Amanda is a qualified nutritionist who works as writer and consultant for TV and radio, has been nutritionist to The Sun for 18 years, and has developed award-winning workplace wellbeing programmes.
Amanda’s Italian Country Soup
Amanda Ursell
Effort:
Complexity:
Cost:
In season now
Serves: 8
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 sticks celery, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled
3 tbsp light olive oil
1 bay leaf
2 large Kind Edward potatoes, peeled and cut into ‘stock-cube’-size pieces
2 glasses dry white wine (if you decide to make an adults only version one day!)
1/2 small white cabbage
1 small pointed spring cabbage, outer leaves discarded, cored and cut lengthways
150g spring greens
1 1/2 l vegetable or chicken stock
salt and black pepper
150g canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
200g butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 small bag baby-leaf spinach, rinsed
1 teaspoon Parmesan cheese (per person), grated
Veg Portions / Serving: 2
Recipe donated by Amanda Ursell for Veg Power.
This soup can be blended as a food for stage-two weaning. Adults can add seasoning later if they feel the need. It is really tasty served with some soft bread for little ones, and for adults, slices of chargrilled sourdough bread rubbed with fresh garlic and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Method:
Finely chop the onions, and chop the celery and carrots into chunkier pieces. Peel the garlic cloves. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and add the chopped vegetables plus the bay leaf. Sauté over a medium to low heat for 20 minutes until ingredients are golden. Add cubed potatoes and turn heat up to medium, stirring all the while. Add the white wine and bring to the boil. Turn heat down to medium/low so it keeps simmering briskly.
Meanwhile roughly chop the remaining green vegetables minus the spinach. Once the wine in the saucepan has reduced by half its volume, add the stock and the green vegetables. Bring to the boil then reduce heat and allow to simmer. Season with a little salt and black pepper to taste. Simmer gently, with the lid slightly askew, for 45 minutes.
Add the cannellini and butter beans. Simmer for a further 45 minutes with the lid off. Finally, add the spinach. Remove the bay leaf and discard, stir well and serve with some freshly-grated Parmesan.
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
Peeling veg can help keep the children happy for some time, and potatoes and carrots are not too fiddly, making them ideal for them to practice with. They can also peel away the outer cabbage leaves, wash the spinach and grate the cheese. If you’re serving the soup with toast, they can rub it with garlic and drizzle with olive oil.
Find more ideas, safety tips, videos and even a free chart in our Kids in the Kitchen section here.
Activities
Why not try sketching a cabbage that you have cut in half? Try to capture the amazing patterns and colours you see with colouring pencils, pens or paint!
Sensory
Cabbage is perfect for exploring with sight. Describe a whole cabbage and one cut in half. What do you see? What colours are there? What patterns? What does it look like? If you feel up to trying some, take a little piece and chew it. (Remember that licking and sniffing counts as ‘trying’ too!)
Find more sensory ideas, tips and videos here. If you get stuck and need a little help with describing words, we have a selection for you here, too!
Serving
Can your child find a great pun or a play on their name or even a silly story for the soup they’ve helped make?
Find the best ways of involving your own child and their skills and interests on our Roles for Kids page.
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Complexity:
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Vic Borrill (Brighton & Hove Food Partnership)
