Menestra – traditional vegetable soup
This vegetable soup is traditionally prepared during the Easter\Lent period in Gibraltar.
It’s a very thick vegetable soup, served with pasta and mounds of grated cheese on top. Although traditionally this dish is a starter , it’s also a great supper dish which will warm you from the inside out on a cold autumn or winter’s night.
Once again its one of those quirky recipes which each household in Gibraltar has with a varying ingredient or two. This version as usual was my Grandmother’s go to recipe.
Full of wholesome vegetables, its a dish which is well loved by all Gibraltarians, plus if you use egg free pasta and vegetarian cheese, it transforms into a nutritionally healthy vegan dish.
Ingredients
1 big tomato- skin removed
3 big carrots
1 big courgette
1 Khol Rhabi
large piece of Pumpkin
1 small aubergine
1/2 kilo green beans
1 tin cannellini beans. Traditionally this soup carries Kidney Beans but I find the taste of these is too strong so I much prefer substituting with white beans.
Basil leaves
3 cloves garlic
Drizzle of Olive Oil
Small Macaroni pasta or spaghetti cut into quarter pieces
1 litre vegetable stock
Grated cheese for serving (typically we use grated hard Edam cheese for this dish, but cheddar will do just as nicely).
Instructions
1
Peel and chop all the vegetables into medium sized pieces. Top and Tail the green beans and make sure you remove any stringy bits they may have.
You don't have to be neat with this as you will be pureeing the ingredients afterwards.
2
If the beans you are using are not already cooked, you need to add this to the vegetable soup at the very beginning. If you are using pre cooked beans, do not add until a later stage.
3
Add all the vegetables ( and beans if raw) into a pressure cooker, add the stock and cook for ten minutes once it begins to let out pressure via the valve.
If using a normal stock pot, you will need to cook for about 20-30 mins, you might need to adjust the stock level of the soup so that it doesn't run dry.
4
In a separate pot cook the pasta as per packet instructions, and drain.
5
Once the soup is ready, puree all ingredients. If you have added the beans at the beginning, remove these from the soup before pureeing the rest of the vegetables.
6
Add the beans into the soup, add the pasta to the soup, break up the basil and add this to the mix. Add a good drizzle of olive oil and season to taste. Allow the soup to sit for 10 minutes so that the basil can infuse.
7
Before serving reheat the soup if necessary then ladle into your plate/bowl and top with grated cheese.
8
A there you go . Traditional Gibraltarian Menestra CosyKitchenCorner style,
pictured here before adding the grated cheese.
Mmm Yum
