April 10, 2026 • 6 mins
This hearty soup is full of comfort and takes full advantage of the late-season, cheap tomatoes available right now. As for canned beans, they are pure nourishment – affordable, varied, and yummy.
Makes 8-10 servings
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 stalks celery (or small bulb fennel), chopped
- 2 litres water
- 4-6 fresh tomatoes, grated (see note)
- 1 x 420g can crushed tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 handfuls of dried pasta shells or macaroni
- 2 x 400g can mixed beans, drained and rinsed
- salt and pepper to taste – use plenty of each
- chopped parsley to serve
- crusty bread to serve
Method
- In a large pot, heat the oil and sauté the onion, carrot, and celery for 5–10 minutes or until softened.
- Add water, fresh and canned tomatoes, and bay leaf and gently bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the pasta and continue cooking until the pasta is almost cooked —about 12 minutes— before adding in the beans to heat through.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste and add more water to thin if you feel it needs it.
- To serve, garnish with chopped parsley and serve with lovely crusty bread.
Nici’s Notes:
- Use a box grater to grate fresh tomatoes – you will end up with a lovely pulp and the skin leftover which can be chopped and added to the soup.
- Add chopped chorizo or bacon to enrich.
- Serve with grated cheese on top.
- Feel free to add frozen vegetables like peas, corn, etc.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to this Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks that Be.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Nicky Wex is here this morning. Killed Yes, good morning Jack.
Is it still kind of eerily quiet at your place?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Oh, my goodness, so eerily quiet. It really is the
calm before the storm.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
A breath of wind that is meant.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yeah, and the sea is beautiful, beautiful clean way that
sort of thing, and yet that's about to turn or
so we so we succeed. I would have to say,
for the first time, I am well prepped. You know,
I have you know, secured furniture. I have made sure
that every power bank I've got, all battery pack is all,
you know, charged up and all that, and so yeah,
(00:46):
it occurs to me that we are we are adapting
to this climate change, we're also at the behest of it.
So you know, my focus is on making sure I've
got enough soup.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Honestly, this is such a good idea. I'm really glad. Yeah,
you know, I mean there are you know, as much
as we love to you know, have complex Kroc and
Bosh recipes and that kind of thing, it just feels
like this might be the weekend actually for something that
might tide you over for twenty four hours if you happen.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
To boost will not help you this, yes.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, I mean it will always help you. But whether.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, for those listeners who don't know, we're talking about
that beautiful high tower of profisseroles, that's what Jacky do was,
you're right, that could certainly comfort me. But look, I've
got a hearty soup for us all. And you know,
even if you are not in the line of this comment,
in line for this cyclone, it's going to help you out.
What I love about having a soup ready is that
you can pop it in furmaces as well. I do
(01:41):
have butane and gas burners and things like that that
I can resort to. But if you don't, like my dad,
for example, we'll be making sure that he's got some soup.
So because it's really nice, I think when things are
dark and windy and rainy and a little bit thought,
it's nice to have something warm if the power goes out,
there's nothing like the comfort of that. So look, super easy,
(02:02):
big pot on the stove. This is going to make
you about ten serves. It will be fine cold, much
better hot. The soup though, four tablespoons of olive oil
and then throwing our wonderful pillars of flavor, a medium
onion that you've diced, two carrots that you've diced, and
two stalks of celery. You could use some phenol bowl tube.
I forgot some of that and then just saute that
(02:22):
for you know, sort of five to ten minutes until
those have softened, and then all we're doing so it's
a really cheap soup this as well. We are adding
in two liters of water and a can of crushed
tomatoes a four hundred and twenty grand. They generally come
and crush tomatoes, but tomatoes are really cheap at the moment, gag.
So I've used four to six fresh tomatoes in this
(02:42):
soup as well. And a little trip that I learned
in Barcelona when we were filming Whttle Kitchens up there
was grate the tomatoes. Use a box grater and just
hold the tomato against the the corner side and start grating,
and you end up with this beautiful pole wow in
your hand and the palm of your hand. You just
end up with the whole skin of the tomato. It's
(03:04):
like magic.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
To be totally clear, do you have it on the
on the chunky side of the chunky side, on the
biggest the blind with the biggest holes.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it's hard to get a bit of traction,
but once you do, you're a way laughing. Yeah, and yes,
and then I and then I'll just cut up that skin,
just dice it up and put it in as well.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Tell you what, any sentence that begins with a little
trick I picked up in Barcelona, dot dot dot. You're
just you're just slipping that in there for us this morning, Mackie,
we saw it.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
It was not a trick to any any Spanish person.
They all do it.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
No, they know how to live. They've got their priority sorted.
I'll do anything the Spanish suggest. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Chucking and Bailey Baileys are great to have in the
house because they'll last for years. The borer and the
and the and the pantry moths don't seem to like them,
but they's so great. Read in flavor. Bring all this
to the boil, and the simit for about fifteen minutes,
and then we're going to add five big handfuls of
pasta shells or macaroni. So this is kind of like
a MINESTRONI cyle. But this is all about comfort. It's
(04:05):
all about sustenance. So put that pasta in cook, boil
a soup for about twelve minutes, and then you're going
to add two cans of mixed beans. I tend not
to go for kidney beans on their own. I find
them a bit clunky. So you know, treat yourself to
something nice and like a butter bean, a little pinto
perhaps a mixture of those. And I'm not great on
(04:26):
chickpeas either, So whatever is your fancy, throw that and
you want to heat that until that's heated through, and
then I would be storing this in a couple of
big spermaces if I was you or else, just have
it on hand ready to heat up if your power
goes out and you've got a gas burner. Season it
really well with salt and pepper. Fin it down with
a bit more water. If it's a bit more like
a stew than a soup. You can garnish it with anything.
(04:50):
You could add chizza or bacon. If you wanted to
enrich it, you could serve it with cheese on top.
You can also add other sorts of frozen vegetables and peas.
But the simplicity absolutely is out of proportion with the
amount of heartiness that you get into the soup with
doesn't take that long to cox.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, it's such a good option today people. No, I
think it's a fantastic idea. You could check that in
the therma, say like you could just you could be
prepped up. So if you're losing power at your place, No,
I think sounds them.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Other things that I would say to peoples. Have some
sandwich fixings on hand just in case. Things tuned to Custer.
Those are great. Oh yeah, if you don't lose power,
then you'll love a you'll love a toasted sandwich. But
if you do, it's really great to have some some cheese,
some solami, some hands, all that sort of thing. Power,
if we lucky, doesn't tend to go out for too long,
So keep those fridges and freezes, only open them as needed,
(05:41):
all that sort of thing. But yeah, I've put soup.
We'll see you through. A good sandwich will see you
through in A toasted sandwich will just be a bonus
on chop.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Very good. All right, love that so much, Nikki, Thank you.
We'll make sure the recipes at Newstalks hedb dot co
dot insid. You stay safe this weekend and we will
catch you again very soon.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Team, listen live
to Newstalks he'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to this Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks that Be.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Nicky Wex is here this morning. Killed Yes, good morning Jack.
Is it still kind of eerily quiet at your place?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Oh, my goodness, so eerily quiet. It really is the
calm before the storm.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
A breath of wind that is meant.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yeah, and the sea is beautiful, beautiful clean way that
sort of thing, and yet that's about to turn or
so we so we succeed. I would have to say,
for the first time, I am well prepped. You know,
I have you know, secured furniture. I have made sure
that every power bank I've got, all battery pack is all,
you know, charged up and all that, and so yeah,
(00:46):
it occurs to me that we are we are adapting
to this climate change, we're also at the behest of it.
So you know, my focus is on making sure I've
got enough soup.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Honestly, this is such a good idea. I'm really glad. Yeah,
you know, I mean there are you know, as much
as we love to you know, have complex Kroc and
Bosh recipes and that kind of thing, it just feels
like this might be the weekend actually for something that
might tide you over for twenty four hours if you happen.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
To boost will not help you this, yes.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, I mean it will always help you. But whether.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, for those listeners who don't know, we're talking about
that beautiful high tower of profisseroles, that's what Jacky do was,
you're right, that could certainly comfort me. But look, I've
got a hearty soup for us all. And you know,
even if you are not in the line of this comment,
in line for this cyclone, it's going to help you out.
What I love about having a soup ready is that
you can pop it in furmaces as well. I do
(01:41):
have butane and gas burners and things like that that
I can resort to. But if you don't, like my dad,
for example, we'll be making sure that he's got some soup.
So because it's really nice, I think when things are
dark and windy and rainy and a little bit thought,
it's nice to have something warm if the power goes out,
there's nothing like the comfort of that. So look, super easy,
(02:02):
big pot on the stove. This is going to make
you about ten serves. It will be fine cold, much
better hot. The soup though, four tablespoons of olive oil
and then throwing our wonderful pillars of flavor, a medium
onion that you've diced, two carrots that you've diced, and
two stalks of celery. You could use some phenol bowl tube.
I forgot some of that and then just saute that
(02:22):
for you know, sort of five to ten minutes until
those have softened, and then all we're doing so it's
a really cheap soup this as well. We are adding
in two liters of water and a can of crushed
tomatoes a four hundred and twenty grand. They generally come
and crush tomatoes, but tomatoes are really cheap at the moment, gag.
So I've used four to six fresh tomatoes in this
(02:42):
soup as well. And a little trip that I learned
in Barcelona when we were filming Whttle Kitchens up there
was grate the tomatoes. Use a box grater and just
hold the tomato against the the corner side and start grating,
and you end up with this beautiful pole wow in
your hand and the palm of your hand. You just
end up with the whole skin of the tomato. It's
(03:04):
like magic.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
To be totally clear, do you have it on the
on the chunky side of the chunky side, on the
biggest the blind with the biggest holes.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it's hard to get a bit of traction,
but once you do, you're a way laughing. Yeah, and yes,
and then I and then I'll just cut up that skin,
just dice it up and put it in as well.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Tell you what, any sentence that begins with a little
trick I picked up in Barcelona, dot dot dot. You're
just you're just slipping that in there for us this morning, Mackie,
we saw it.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
It was not a trick to any any Spanish person.
They all do it.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
No, they know how to live. They've got their priority sorted.
I'll do anything the Spanish suggest. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Chucking and Bailey Baileys are great to have in the
house because they'll last for years. The borer and the
and the and the pantry moths don't seem to like them,
but they's so great. Read in flavor. Bring all this
to the boil, and the simit for about fifteen minutes,
and then we're going to add five big handfuls of
pasta shells or macaroni. So this is kind of like
a MINESTRONI cyle. But this is all about comfort. It's
(04:05):
all about sustenance. So put that pasta in cook, boil
a soup for about twelve minutes, and then you're going
to add two cans of mixed beans. I tend not
to go for kidney beans on their own. I find
them a bit clunky. So you know, treat yourself to
something nice and like a butter bean, a little pinto
perhaps a mixture of those. And I'm not great on
(04:26):
chickpeas either, So whatever is your fancy, throw that and
you want to heat that until that's heated through, and
then I would be storing this in a couple of
big spermaces if I was you or else, just have
it on hand ready to heat up if your power
goes out and you've got a gas burner. Season it
really well with salt and pepper. Fin it down with
a bit more water. If it's a bit more like
a stew than a soup. You can garnish it with anything.
(04:50):
You could add chizza or bacon. If you wanted to
enrich it, you could serve it with cheese on top.
You can also add other sorts of frozen vegetables and peas.
But the simplicity absolutely is out of proportion with the
amount of heartiness that you get into the soup with
doesn't take that long to cox.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, it's such a good option today people. No, I
think it's a fantastic idea. You could check that in
the therma, say like you could just you could be
prepped up. So if you're losing power at your place, No,
I think sounds them.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Other things that I would say to peoples. Have some
sandwich fixings on hand just in case. Things tuned to Custer.
Those are great. Oh yeah, if you don't lose power,
then you'll love a you'll love a toasted sandwich. But
if you do, it's really great to have some some cheese,
some solami, some hands, all that sort of thing. Power,
if we lucky, doesn't tend to go out for too long,
So keep those fridges and freezes, only open them as needed,
(05:41):
all that sort of thing. But yeah, I've put soup.
We'll see you through. A good sandwich will see you
through in A toasted sandwich will just be a bonus
on chop.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Very good. All right, love that so much, Nikki, Thank you.
We'll make sure the recipes at Newstalks hedb dot co
dot insid. You stay safe this weekend and we will
catch you again very soon.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Team, listen live
to Newstalks he'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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