Sun Recipe – Minestrone with Fresh Beans

There’s no point in showing this recipe to a “minestrone purist”, we’d hate to provoke an apoplectic fit. So here’s a vegetable soup, minestrone-style, but with broad beans. A recipe that requires a little prep work, but is well worth it as a complete meal. And as my son would say, “Mom, it’s not good… it’s super good!!!”

Serves 3-4 – Preparation : 30 min – Cooking time : 2 h in the solar oven – Equipment : solar oven + black saucepan with tight-fitting lid

Ingredients

– 1 carrot
– 1 celery stalk
– 1 dozen button mushrooms
– 2-3 garlic cloves
– 1 teaspoon fresh (or dried) rosemary
– 2 tablespoons olive oil
– 1 teaspoon unrefined salt
– 2 ground pepper
– 1 pinch Espelette pepper
– 1 teaspoon unrefined salt
– 1 firm zucchini
– 500 g fresh beans for peeling (alternatively, 250 g frozen beans, already peeled)
– 1 .3 l water (or 1.5 l for traditional cooking)
– 1 tablespoon vegetable stock (= 1 cube)
– 1 handful of small pasta dishes such as coquillettes or conchigliettes (gluten-free if required)
– 1 small bunch basil (or flat-leaf parsley)

Recipe

1. Preheat the solar cooker.
2. Cut carrot and celery into small cubes.
3. Brush the mushrooms and cut into thick strips. Cut the garlic into very thin strips. Chop the rosemary very finely.
4. Pour the oil into the pan and place it in the solar cooker.
5. Heat for 15 min, then add the diced carrot and celery, mushrooms, garlic, rosemary, chilli, salt and pepper. Stir and cook for a further 15 min.
6. Cut the zucchini into small cubes.
7. Shell the beans, removing any thick skins.
8. Add the zucchinis, beans, water and stock to the saucepan. Blend.
9. Leave to cook for about 2 h. Halfway through cooking, pour in the pasta and stir.
10. Just before serving, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Sprinkle with chopped basil.

Find this solar recipe in Sarah Bienaimé‘s superb book

Cuissons Alternatives – 40 vegan and gluten-free recipes for cooking differently

Publisher: Alternatives

Forget the microwave.
Forget the plancha.
Put away the deep fryer.

This cookbook celebrates alternative cooking: gentle, healthy and delicious.
In our xxi
^e
century’s super-equipped, hyper-connected kitchens, worktops are taking on a sci-fi air, while common sense is going out the window.
Overpriced cooking utensils, lengthy instruction manuals, systematic dependence on fossil fuels, premature obsolescence…the tea towel is burning!
Simplicity, ingenuity, a bit of organization, utensils that last a lifetime (some of which you can make yourself), simple cooking techniques and delicious recipes… that’s what this cookbook is all about.
Pottery, solar, woodstove, steam, hot water, Norwegian pot… and even “no cooking” at all! Nothing is too good.
And since good news never comes alone, we’ll be cooking without meat or animal products, discovering some extraordinary spices, going gluten-free, enjoying the sunshine and inviting all our friends over for dinner.