This is another one of the Ottolenghi recipes from the Guardian “Weekend Vegetarian” series. It irks me sometimes that they can’t use a vegetarian author to write that column – someone like Denis Cotter or Celia Brooks Brown perhaps, but I’ve made a few dishes from the column and I like his style.
I was immediately interested in the dish because when I was in Florence last year on a cold wet dreary day, I had a bowl of Ribollita and it was hearty, cheering, rib sticking goodness. This looked similar to the dish I had but that one had beans not chickpeas. No matter; I intended to try it!
I made only 2 differences to the recipe. I made my own pesto based on the Vegan with a Vengeance version, which I love. I also wanted a thicker stew rather than a soup so I used less stock. As you can see from the 2 pictures mine is far more stew like but I thinned the leftovers down a little as the bread had swallowed most of the liquid by the following day!
I enjoyed this very much – healthy, tasty and a naturally vegan recipe – what more could you want?
Cooking the Vegan Books 
Looks super yummy nummy!
Hi Liz
I agree about Ottolenghi. He’s a nice guy but his restaurants don’t really cater well for veggies; very few of the dishes have any protein, apart from cheese, and no effort is made to make that vegetarian. It’s such a shame that from the pool of talent we have, the media always seems to feel more confident with a non veggie.
Debbie
I agree with your comments on the vegetarian cook not being a vegetarian, I also find that the photos of the dishes always look very unappetising as though they have been slopped on the plate.
I agree with Chools. Your photo looks great and I’ll definitely try this soup/stew. If I’d just seen the photo in the Guardian, though, I wouldn’t have fancied it at all.