Bastille Day 2024: Provençal Vegetable Soup with Pistou

For our Bastille Day soup course, I decided to make a vegetable soup with all the summer goodness available. Melissa Clark's Dinner in French provided the perfect recipe. Loaded with celery, onions, green beans, zucchini, and a rich vegetable broth with the addition of canned cannellini beans and orzo, this was a bowl of yumminess!

Take a few minutes and make the pistou for a nice dollop added just before serving.

Pistou is a French mixture of basil, garlic and oil which is almost a cousin of the Italian pesto. is quite similar to its Italian friend, pesto. 

Now let's make the soup:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

6 garlic cloves, finely grated or minced

2 medium carrots, diced into 1/4-inch pieces

2 large celery stalks, diced into 1/4-inch pieces

1 large white onion, coarsely chopped

2 t. fine sea salt, divided, plus more as needed

1 bay leaf

4 sprigs fresh thyme

4 sprigs fresh parsley

8 oz. green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2 1/3 cups)

1 medium zucchini, diced into 1/2-inch pieces

1 (15-oz.) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 (14.5-oz.) can diced tomatoes (do not drain)

4 cups water (I substituted vegetable stock)

1 cup small-size pasta, such as shells, ditalini or orzo

For the pistou:

2 cups (about 2 oz.) fresh basil leaves and tender stems

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely grated or minced

1/4 t. fine sea salt, plus more as needed

Freshly ground black pepper, as needed

1 ripe plum tomato, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup (2 oz.) grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a large heavy soup pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, carrots, celery, onion and 1/2 t. of the salt. Cook, stirring until the onions are just starting to brown at the edges, about 7 minutes.

Use kitchen twine to tie the bay leaf, thyme sprigs and parsley sprigs together (bouquet garni) and add the bundle to the pot. (Or, you can skip the twine and throw the herbs directly into the pot, though you’ll have to fish them out later.)

Stir in the green beans, zucchini and another 1/2 t. salt; cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until everything is just tender, about 6 minutes. Stir in the cannellini beans, tomatoes and their juices, 4 cups of vegetable stock, the pasta and another 1 t. salt.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the pasta is just al dente (this will vary from 5 to 12 minutes depending on your pasta, so check often.) Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, make the pistou. In a food process or blender, blend together the basil, oil, garlic, salt and a large pinch of pepper. Scrape the sides of the container and blend in the tomato and Parmesan. Taste and add more salt if needed.

To serve, remove the bouquet garni (or loose herbs), ladle the soup into bowls, and top them with dollops of the pistou and a drizzle of olive oil.

**I made the soup a day ahead.  Therefore, I cooked the pasta separately and refrigerated the cooked soup and pasta separately.  As I slowly reheated the soup the next day, I gently stirred in the cooked pasta.