The Paris Project: Mange ta Soupe!

The French are probably the biggest soup eaters in the world. A lot of French eat a large and warm lunch and take a light soup in the evening.

Next to this, a home made soup does not contain too many calories, is healthy, light, filling and on some days even comforting.

Here is my take on a classic soupe aux légumes with home made croutons.

What you'll need for the soup (biological of course!)

1,5 litre of vegetable stock

4 celery stems

4 spring onions

6 carrots

1 large white onions

5 parts of garlic

a handful of mushrooms

1zucchini

fresh thyme

fresh parsley

2 bay leafs

2 spoons of olive oil

Salt and Pepper (I always use pink Himalayan salt, for its health benefits)

What you'll need for the croutons

spelt bread

olive oil

garlic

salt and pepper

parsley

Cut the onions and garlic and glaze these on a low fire. Add the vegetable stock and let it boil for a few minutes. Chop all the veggies, relatively large, and add half of the celery, carrots, zucchini and spring onions to the stock. Add the thyme parsley and bay leafs. Leave it on a low fire for about 50 - 60 minutes, this will be your soup base.

After one hour remove all the veggies and add the other half of uncooked veggies and add the mushrooms (chopped obviously ;)). Leave this on a low fire for 5 minutes so that the veggies keep a nice bite.

In the meantime you can prepare the croutons, super easy and amazingly tasty. Slice the bread in either cubes or sticks, whatever you prefer. Drench it in a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper, parsley and garlic. Place the bread in the oven and bake it for 8 minutes on 180 degrees.

Bon appétit!