Garden Vegetable Soup

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This versatile Garden Soup is packed with fresh herbs and vegetables for the best possible flavor. It’s perfect on a bone-chilling day—or, any time you need a boost!

If you don’t have a ham bone, substitute beef bones or veal bones. For a vegetarian soup, omit the bone entirely.

And if you want a quicker soup, omit the bones and add your sautéed vegetables to store-bought broth (chicken, beef, or vegetable).

Ingredients

1 ham bone

1/4 pound salt pork, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

3 sprigs parsley, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

3 stalks celery, chopped

2 onions, peeled and chopped

1 cup fresh shell beans

4 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped

Few leaves each of mint, marjoram, basil, rosemary, and thyme

1/2 pound spinach, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan or Romano cheese

Instructions

Cover ham bone with water in soup kettle and simmer, uncovered, 1 hour. Remove bone, skim off fat from broth. Cut meat from bone into bits and return to soup. Fry salt pork in skillet until crisp. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside.

Add garlic, parsley, carrots, celery, and onions to fat and saute until tender. Do not brown.

Add sautéed vegetables to ham broth, along with beans, tomatoes, and herbs. Simmer, partially covered, 30 minutes.

Add spinach and simmer 10 minutes longer.

Season with salt and pepper and add reserved salt pork, if desired.

Garnish with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.

Substitutions: If fresh shell beans are not available, use ½ cup dry beans, soaked and cooked. Soldier beans, lentils, or chick-peas, or any combination of these works well. Add them to the soup with their cooking liquid, or drain and add with a small amount of water. Just about any other vegetable except beets, cabbage, or turnips can be added. Green peppers, summer squash, green or wax beans, peas, leeks, fennel or other herbs will add their own character and blend well with the ingredients called for above.

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