Jamie Oliver's spring soup with cheesy toast

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 300g frozen classic vegetable base mix
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 x 300g bag of spring greens
• 1 x 400g tin of white beans, such as cannellini, butter, haricot
• 1 organic vegetable stock cube
• 4 slices of stale bread (200g)
• 60g Cheddar cheese
• One pinch of dried chilli flakes

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.

Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil into a large deep pan over a medium heat. Add the vegetable base mix, a pinch of freshly ground black pepper and sea salt, two sprigs of fresh thyme, and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes until softened.

Drain the beans, reserving the juice, then add half of the beans along with the juice to the pan. Crumble in the stock cube and top up with 800ml boiling water. Stir well, cover and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the sliced spring greens and cook for 2 more minutes, until tender. Transfer to a blender and blitz until smooth, then season to perfection.

Place the bread on a baking tray and coarsely grate over the cheese. Sprinkle over the remaining beans and the chilli flakes and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden and crisp.

Divide the soup between warm bowls, top with the crispy beans and cheesy toasts, sprinkle with a few fresh thyme leaves and a drizzle of olive oil and serve.

Better Baskets

Tesco Good Food Ambassador Jamie Oliver has created a selection of seasonal recipes in collaboration with WWF and Tesco as part of the supermarket's Better Baskets initiative, which aims to make it easier for customers to make healthy and sustainable choices.

“These three new recipes are packed with wonderful veg and are super flexible, so home cooks can use what they already have in the fridge or swap in whatever veg is in season," says Jamie Oliver. "They're also affordable, really quick to rustle up, and full of flavour - so will hopefully provide inspiration for the whole family.”

Tesco is also working with its partner WWF to halve the environmental impact of shopping baskets, reducing the impact of food production and tackling food and packaging waste.

Hungry for more? Try Jamie's easy sweet potato and chickpea curry or his or his Japanese-style teriyaki noodles