#3.15 Springtime Vegetable Soup with Pesto

This is one of my favorite anytime soups. It has amazing flavor, filled with lots of yummy fresh veggies, and the leftovers (if ever any) hold up well. After a winter of heavy soups I like to add this lighter one to the rotation this time of year. Added bonus it's weight watcher friendly (5 pp) and very filling! 

Springtime Vegetable Soup with Pesto

prep time: 15 min           Cook time: 25 min         severing size: 8

Ingredients

1 tsp extra virgin oil oil

4 med leeks ( or green onions) diced white and light green parts

1 cup celery diced

1 cup carrots diced

1 cup zucchini diced

1 cup green peas (frozen or fresh)

1 tsp salt 

1 tsp garlic minced

64  oz canned chicken broth

19 oz canned cannelini beans drained and rinsed 

14 1/2 oz canned diced tomatoes drained (I like the basil & herbs but totally up to you)

4 tsp pesto sauce (you can add more to taste)

Instructions:

1) Dice all your vegetables then heat oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Add leeks, celery, carrots and salt. Cook for about 10 minutes stirring frequently until vegetables begin to soften

be sure to drain & rinse beans

2) stir minced garlic into pot and cook for 1 minute

3) add broth and increase heat to high to bring to a boil. 

4) After boiling is reached stir in diced zucchini, peas, beans and tomatoes. Cook for about 10 minutes allowing flavors to blend.

5) Serve soup by swirling 1/2 tsp pesto into top of each serving.  If you are serving this at a later time add pesto prior to eating rather than before storing it. Believe it or not adding the pesto at the end makes a huge difference in taste!

Yields 1 1/4 cups of soup per serving

adapted from weightwatchers recipe meeting guide spring 2012

You can make your own pesto recipe with fresh basil and freeze it in an ice cube tray for use later up to 3 months. A good simple recipe I like is from Food Network. 

Word of warning watch where you are getting your pine nuts. Stay away from any Chinese products as there have been instances of reactions to a different species of pine nuts that can give you "pine mouth" a horrible bitter metallic taste with no matter what you eat/drink that can last for days to weeks. This happened to me a couple summers ago it was terrible. Expired nuts can also cause this reaction so check those dates!