Vegetable Soups

A walk to the garden for herbs or the makings of a salad, a hasty can appealing roadside stand, a backbreaking—there is always too much that I want—trip to a farmer’s market, a foray into a Chinese or Indian market, or even a shopping cart expedition around my local supermarket frequently results in a soup. Vegetable soups, icy, steaming, or pleasantly room temperature, may be elegant but are most often direct and peasanty and reflect the seasons’ generosity. A soup as basic as a minestrone is a theme whose variations are regional—Genoa, Tuscany, and Milan—and seasonal. They are eaten hot, room temperature, and cold.