Imagine it’s a cold winter night. At least I have to imagine, ‘cuz here in NY it’s a ridiculous 60+ degrees, people are sauntering outside in T-shirts, and I’m shvitzing in my black turtleneck sweater. (It’s the only thing that fits since I had the baby. I was really counting on cold weather.) Ok, so let’s imagine that there’s frost on the windowpane and that Hubby just built a cozy fire in the fireplace. (As long as I’m imagining, let’s really go for it.)
Since we’re pretending, we might as well cook up a hearty winter meal. Italian Vegetable Soup (spiked with orzo and pesto) and served with cheese bread is the perfect tomato-ey comfort food for a cold winter’s eve, and even for an annoyingly warm November day. Soup is one of my favorite foods, and the Italian Veggie soup is what I fix when I’m “watching” what I eat: that’s when I hold the orzo and the cheese bread.
Italian Vegetable Soup with Cheese Bread
Servings
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion peeled and coarsely chopped
- 2 small zucchini cut into ½-inch cubes
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 5 to 6 cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup frozen cut green beans
- 1 cup orzo
- 1 can diced tomatoes 14.5-ounce
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 8 slices baguette or Italian loaf
- ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup store bought pesto
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a medium pot or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onions and sauté 5 minutes. Add zucchini and garlic and sauté 4 more minutes. Add broth, beans, orzo, tomatoes and oregano and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 14 to 18 minutes or until orzo is cooked and vegetables are tender.
- Preheat oven to a low broil. Place sliced bread on a large sheet pan. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon cheese on each slice of bread and broil on low until cheese is bubbly and bread is lightly browned.
- To serve, ladle soup into 4 bowls and top each with 1 tablespoon pesto. Serve with cheese bread.
Made it tonight and improvised the soup broth with some soup powder. Next time I will use like 1/4 the amount of orzo… soaked up all the liquid and was like the consistency of watery pasta – not soup.
Even though it looks like a large grain of rice, Orzo is actually short cut pasta: see picture here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orzo_%28pasta%29
that’s allowed!!!
OY ok, let’s trouble shoot – bc I really like this soup. I think the secret is in the veg broth — I use the Manischewitz all Natural Veg Broth – I find it to be the most flavorful base – what did you use?
This came out a little bland… ok very bland. Something seems to be missing.
I have a problem: my English is not perfect-could you please explain to me,what is ORZO?Thanks, Michaela
Love it ! I’ll top mine with a splash more mozzarella ! Yum!
sounds amazing! made my mouth water!
that’s what I was going for
This looks so delicious! Perfect for a cold winter night.