Basic soup recipe

Portugal is a country with a strong history in the field of agriculture. Having a small garden where you can grow your own vegetables is still a matter of survival for some people, as it was many years ago. Combine our love for growing things with a Mediterranean climate and you get fresh vegetables available all year long. I am going to show you how you can cook a basic soup with fresh vegetables.

Basic Ingredients:
- Water;
- 1 clove of garlic;
- 3 table spoons of olive oil (my grandmother used to put an entire soup ladle of olive oil, but this is too much);
- Salt (I used half a table spoon, but remember that the less salt you use, the healthier the soup gets).

Vegetables (remember to wash the vegetables before using them):
- 14 chunks of pumpkin;
- 1 half of a turnip;
- 1 half of an onion;
- 7 carrots with the ends cut out (leave the peel of the carrots because it has plenty of vitamins);
- 1 leek;
- 1 zucchini with the ends cut out;
- 1 half of a cabbage.

Notice that you can basically use whatever vegetables you have at home, experiment for yourself and check out the results. Using plenty of vegetables also gives this soup a kind of purée consistency. This consistency can also be achieved by using potatoes or chickpeas (although potatoes have a lot of calories in them, so that is why I did not use any in this soup).


Recipe:

Fill half of a pressure cooker with water.

Place all the vegetables, sliced, in the pressure cooker and finish with the salt and the olive oil. Let it cook according to the instructions of the pressure cooker (Note: pressure cookers can be dangerous if not handled properly; It is not mandatory to use one, you can cook this soup on a regular metal pan, it just takes longer to cook the vegetables). After the cooker has finished its job and it is safe to open the lid, use a hand blender to purée the soup.

Enjoy!