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Batch 010

Spring
vegetable soup.

Light meal Grass-fed beef Batch 010
30 minutes Serves 4 Grass-fed beef

A soup made for the bright end of spring, when the market starts looking generous again. New potatoes, asparagus, peas and green beans, all kept whole and simmered briefly so they hold their bite. The broth carries everything; the herbs go on at the very end.

A bowl of clear broth with new potatoes, green beans and herbs
Tested by Sinead in our Lisbon kitchen.
Ingredients
  • 1L Grass-fed beef broth
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 cups baby new potatoes, halved
  • 2 handfuls carrots, chopped
  • 1 cup asparagus, cut into batons
  • 1 cup green beans, trimmed
  • 1 handful sugar snap peas
  • 2 medium red onions or a handful of spring onions, sliced
  • Dill, parsley and basil, to finish
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
Method
  1. Rinse all the vegetables and cut into bite-sized pieces.
  2. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the new potatoes and cook for 10 minutes, until just tender. Drain.
  3. Return the potatoes to the pot along with the carrots, asparagus, green beans, snap peas and onions.
  4. Pour over the broth so it just covers everything. Simmer over medium heat for 3 minutes, just to bring the vegetables together.
  5. Taste and adjust the salt.
  6. Ladle into bowls. Scatter over the dill, parsley and basil at the last moment, and finish with a thread of olive oil.
More recipes

Keep cooking.

Recipe Herb and tomato braised beef stew 2 hours 30 minutes · Serves 4 · Grass-fed beef → Recipe Beef broth tomato sauce 2 hours · Grass-fed beef → Recipe Classic Lisbon caldo verde 35 min · Serves 4 · Grass-fed beef →
"This recipe triples easily if you want to batch-cook for the week. The broth keeps the vegetables from going dull."
— from the kitchen, on this recipe
Common questions

A few things people ask.

Yes, and many cooks would prefer it for a spring soup. Liquid Gold gives a lighter, cleaner result that lets the asparagus and peas come through. Beef broth is what we use because we like the contrast of dark broth and bright vegetables; both are honest choices.
Not really. The whole point is vegetables that hold their bite, and they go soft within a couple of hours of cooking. You can prep everything (chopped vegetables, broth ready) up to a day in advance and put the soup together in 15 minutes when you want it.
We wouldn't. Freezing turns asparagus mushy, snap peas wilt, and the whole point of a spring soup is texture. The broth itself freezes well; freeze that on its own and use fresh vegetables when you want the soup.
Then this isn't the soup to make. The recipe is built around what spring offers: new potatoes, asparagus, snap peas. Out of season, those vegetables come in tired and twice the price. Try the fennel and white bean soup or the cauliflower instead until April.
Not as written; beef broth is the base. Use a good vegetable broth or our Mushroom & Herb to make it vegetarian. The vegetables and herbs do most of the heavy lifting either way.
Because the vegetables are already mostly cooked by the time they meet the broth (the potatoes were par-boiled), and the soup is meant to be bright, almost crisp. Three minutes gets everything hot through without dulling the colours or softening the snap peas to nothing.

Cooked, tested and written by Sinead McInerney in our Lisbon kitchen. Last reviewed: April 2026.