This recipe was brought back by my mother from a cooking session in Provence. The French word for pesto is pistou. This fresh vegetable soup has a great flavor. Three times in a single month, we succeeded! It is incredibly simple, filling, healthful, and tasty (better the next day). is a dinner dish that goes well with some crusty bread and wine.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 3 quarts vegetable broth
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups fresh green beans – rinsed, trimmed, and snapped into bite-size pieces
- 4 zucchini, cut into small cubes
- 3 carrots, cut into bite size pieces
- 4 potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 bunch basil, leaves picked from stems
- 10 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tomatoes, chopped
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15.5 ounce) can white beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (8 ounce) package spaghetti, broken into 2-inch pieces
- ½ cup shredded Gruyere cheese
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Bring the vegetable broth and water to a boil in a large pot. Stir in the green beans, zucchini, carrots, and potatoes. Return to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the pistou by processing the basil leaves, garlic, tomatoes, olive oil, and salt together in a food processor until finely chopped; set aside.
- Stir the kidney beans, white beans, canned diced tomatoes, and spaghetti into the soup and return to a simmer. Cook until the spaghetti is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the pistou. Sprinkle with Gruyere cheese and Parmesan cheese to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 456 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 63 g |
| Cholesterol | 11 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 11 g |
| Protein | 17 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 1056 mg |
| Sugars | 9 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made as a postpartum healing soup. Really good. Waited until last 10 of 45 to add zucchini. Used Italian flavored diced canned tomatoes and 4 vine ripe tomatoes. Used 4 very lg cloves of garlic.
My favorite soup of all time!
Very good! I did make changes. Used only 1/4 cup olive oil andmung bean pasta. Needed a little seasoning and added pepper.
Loved it! I used less olive oil and only 1 tomato in the pistou.
I tweaked this recipe quite a bit (as I always do). I began by sautéing onions, carrots, garlic and celery and then used low sodium vegetable stock. I added zucchini with the beans like the other comment suggestions. I diced everything into about 1/2″ pieces and the red potatoes only needed to cook 20 min and not 40. I also added diced yellow bell pepper instead of green beans. Instead of spaghetti I used orzo pasta and it worked perfectly. It made 20 cups of soup, so I will probably 1/2 this recipe next time! I can’t wait to eat this soup over and over (lots of leftovers!) and invite friends over to share.
This is a delicious soup. I will use more basil next time. I heeded everyones advice and I added the zucchini at the end. I did not add potatoes as no one in my family wanted them that night. I also cooked the pasta separately and added it at the end. I also will probably skip the pasta and just double up some of the beans. I will be making this again. I had enough to feed 12 people! Definitely eat this with baguette. Its delicious!!
One of my all time favorite soups and it’s very versatile also.
I have made this soup many times and frequently serve it to guests. It is always a hit. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
This is an absolutely fabulous soup. The garlic in the basil pistou adds a real kick, almost like chilli. You can also change the vegetables to what you have in the fridge and I omitted the pasta and potatoes (husband is on a low carb diet). I added turnip, broad beans and only added one can of white beans (all I had). Filling as a meal (2 bowls) or a great first course. Serve with fresh crusty bread…yum.
Really delicious! I was using up some garden veggies so I changed things slightly. I cut back on the green beans because I only had a few and only used two potatoes. I also added spinach and wilted it right before removing the soup from the heat.
A very nice and filling soup, it has great flavor once you add the pistou. I sauteed onions and garlic in some olive oil before adding the rest of the veggies and the broth, and I added the zucchini and beans last (as others mentioned) b/c I knew it would become too soft if I added it with the potatoes and carrots. Enjoy with some crusty french bread and parmesan over the top!
Very nice, not enough flavor though.
Lovely soup. I used beef and chicken broth and water and ditalini (small italian pasta) as a variant to original recipe. I find it very interesting to read what others do to modify the dish in keeping with what’s in the cupboard. I also added a little salt, pepper and a shake or two of italian seasoning. The Pesto topper was crazy strong with garlic but I loved it and just added a teaspoon or so to each bowl as I served it. This will remain in my recipe box to make again. My neighbors love it when I make soup, because I share. Typical Italian!
Yummy. Great tasting and filling meal that is meatless. I was surprised my teenage son actually could fill himself up with this meal! Will make again.
Wonderful recipe! Though, I made pesto instead of pistou because I had pinenuts on hand. It’s a very good idea to add the softer veggies at the end to prevent them from being over cooked. I sliced and toasted French bread and topped with extra pesto and cheese. Super yummy!
My family loves this soup! It has become our new fall favorite. I make it with or without adding pasta. It is also good over brown rice.
A great, hearty, healthy & low-fat soup for a chilly Fall night. Definitely add the zucchini and green beans (I added sliced baby portobello mushrooms also) toward the END of cooking time, not at the beginning, or they’ll be mush. I used tiny elbow macaroni instead of broken spaghetti, and cooked it separately before adding to the pot. The tomato-basil pistou definitely makes this soup (and sidenote: try dunking some bread in the pistou before you add it all to the soup…mmm!). On it’s own, it’s just an ordinary (bit bland) veggie/bean soup but the pistou gives it a great flavour punch. Served with some shavings of a good parm reggiano, crusty bread, and a decent chardonnay, this is a very warming and satisfying meal. Looking forward to taking leftovers for lunch at work this week! (makes a big pot)
Very yummy with a few changes. Simmer veggies minus the zucchini on low for 30 min. Add zucchini when you add the noodles. I also added swiss chard because I had it and used wheat spiral noodles again because that is what I had. Also added browned ground turkey. Important thing with soup is to use a good quality stock. My 6 yr old who every evening looks at dinner and says, “YUCKY” ate a good size bowl of this and enjoyed it. I like to cook things from all over the world and my kids and I look up on the globe where the recipe is from. Thanks for a yummy french recipe.
After spending quite some time cubing veggies, I found them to be mushy after the 45 min simmering time….and I even simmered on low, not med-low as the recipe suggested. It just stunk that I had mush before even reaching steps 2 and 3. I hope the end result is tasty enough for me to want to try again, only this time with my alterations such as adding the zucchini after the green beans, potatoes, and carrots.
Pretty good soup. I only made one change. I used chicken broth because it’s what I had on hand. Good flavor. The pesto really makes the soup. Quite flavorful and pretty easy to make.