Your key to a flat tummy…
While there’s more to being healthy than just having a flat belly, being lean in the abdominal area and around the waistline indicates good heart health. This soup recipe is a surprising flat-belly meal…

What You Need

¼ cup olive oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
8 small carrots, peeled and finely diced
2 sticks celery, finely diced
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp salt
6 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
8 smallish tomatoes
3 cups water
200g green beans, topped, tailed and finely sliced on the diagonal
6 courgettes, finely diced
3 to 6 Parmesan rinds 30g flatleaf parsley, chopped
To serve:
4 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
8 tsp Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Method

1/ Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots and celery and cook for 15 minutes or until tender but without colour.
2/ Sprinkle the garlic with salt; crush with the blade of a knife and add, along with the herbs. Cook, stirring, for a minute or two.
3/ Cut a cross on the bottom of each tomato; cover with boiling water for one minute. Drain, rinse with cold water and peel off the skins.
4/ Cut out the core and squeeze the skins and juice into a bowl. Chop the flesh, add to the soup, then strain the collected juice into the soup as well. Discard the skins
and seeds.
5/ Add water to the pot and bring to the boil. Add the beans, courgettes and Parmesan rinds and simmer for 15 minutes.
6/ Season and add the parsley. Divide between four bowls; sprinkle each with one teaspoon olive oil and two teaspoons Parmesan cheese.
Serves 4. Per serving: 1 505kJ, 18g fat (4g sat), 290mg sodium, 42g carbs, 12g fibre, 23g sugars, 13g protein
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