
I enjoy walking down the hill in my neighborhood to go to the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sundays. Sometimes I have a plan and other times I choose things on a whim. The weather was particularly beautiful this week and I found myself choosing gentle green flavors that celebrate the simplicity of the season. When I got back home I had several bags of vegetables and no firm plan. So I did what I usually do in that situation. I laid out my knife, a vegetable peeler, my favorite veg only cutting board, a big bowl for scraps, and a dozen little bowls for my handiwork. The resulting mise en place became the inspiration for this Spring Vegetable Soup.
Mise en place literally translates as “put in place”, but I’ve heard it described as “take time to save time”. For me mise en place is also a cathartic time. A time when other stresses are set aside and kitchen creativity flourishes. The very process of washing, peeling, cutting and measuring helps me organize my thinking. By the time the mise en place is “in place” I usually have a plan and the final preparation becomes simple.
Spring Vegetable Soup
This Spring Vegetable Soup is one of those free-form affairs, so feel free to make substitutions based on whatever you have on hand or according to the season and your tastes. This Spring Vegetable Soup leaves plenty of room for you to “feel” your way through the preparation. The only hint I have to offer is to sort the vegetables you choose for this soup according to their cooking times. Some vegetables are sturdy enough to handle a sauté, others may need to be pre-cooked or blanched. In this recipe I blanched the fava beans because I didn’t want to overcook them. Everything else I diced small or sliced thinly so they would cook quickly and maintain their individual textures and flavors. Taking my time with the mise en place made it simple to make this soup by instinct rather than by rote. GREG

Spring Vegetable Soup
Your mise shot is one of the prettiest food photos I’ve seen in a while, really terrific.
Gorgeous mise en place, sir. And nice results, too.
Greg, I know the benefits of mise en place and sometimes do it and sometimes not. I’ve never done it for soup, and now I’m asking myself why not — because the ingredients just look sooo gorgeous all lined up on the counter like that! The soup sounds like just what I’d like to be eating today.
That is the most gorgeous mis en place!! The soup isn’t too shabby either!
What a gorgeous soup! Love all the bright colours and flavours. I’m going to make it this week. Thanks, G!
Your photos are amazing, I want a poster of that mis en place for my kitchen, it would inspire me!
I’m really big on mise en place, too. Yes it does take time — but it sure makes the actual assembly/cooking of the dish a whole lot faster. And I also tend to develop/revise recipes as I’m doing all that prep work!
All the vegetables! This sounds like the perfect way to get as much spring as possible into one dish. So good.
I stumbled upon your blog/website through Pinterest. How fortunate for me! I’m captivated by your interests & talent. The 100 item autobiography is lovely. Thanks, Patrick
Thank you (really!) GREG
Love that you can walk to that glorious market — so wonderful that, for me, it rivals Santa Monica’s — your fresh spring soup inspires me to pull one together.