Tortellini and Vegetable Soup

Last night's dinner was one of my most-used fallback recipes, a Tortellini and Vegetable Soup. I found this in my Good Food magazine about a year ago, and still use it now. It's great for a quick meal after work, or as a standby meal on the last day before your weekly shop (as in our case!), as you can adapt it to use whatever leftover veggies you have lying around. Packets of tortellini are cheap, keep for a long time, and you can choose any flavour you fancy. I normally use spinach and ricotta. What more can you ask for?

This recipe serves 4-or 2 with leftovers for lunch the next day :

Finely chop 1 large onion and 1 garlic clove, and roughly chop 2 carrots. Heat 1tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan and add the onion, carrot and garlic. Soften for 5 minutes.
Add 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes and 1 litre vegetable stock (made with a cube), and simmer for 5 minutes. Add any fresh herbs if you have them (in the picture below I have used oregano).
Add 200g frozen green beans (or a mixture of beans and peas) and simmer for 5 minutes more.
Once the veg is tender, stir in a packet of tortellini pasta and cook for 2 minutes more.

Serve ladled into bowls. Sprinkle with basil and grated cheddar, or parmesan if you have it.

Miss P's Top Tips : this is also nice with 1 tbsp pesto stirred through,

if you don't have any fresh basil.

It's also great with frozen peas and sweetcorn. For a more italian feel,
you could try tinned artichokes, olives, sundried tomatoes and rocket.