Solar 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 recipe book celebrates alternative cooking: gentle, healthy and delicious.
In our super-equipped and hyper-connected kitchens, the worktop takes on the air of science fiction while common sense takes a turn for the worse.
Overpriced cooking utensils, lengthy instructions, systematic dependence on fossil fuels, premature obsolescence…the rag is burning!
Simplicity, cleverness, a little organization, utensils that last a lifetime, some to make yourself, very simple cooking techniques, delicious recipes… here in a few words is the program this recipe book.
Cooking in pottery, with solar energy, on the wood stove, with steam, with a little hot water, in a Norwegian pot… and even “no cooking” at all! Nothing is too beautiful.
And since good news never comes alone, we will cook without meat or animal products, we will discover some extraordinary spices, we will give up gluten, we will enjoy the sun, and we will invite all our friends to dinner.

Be happy!
Sarah Bienaimé
Author and consultant in vegan and gluten-free cooking
http://www.sarahbienaime.com/