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Instant Vegetable Soup

Four servings

5 cups water
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (about half a zucchini)
1 cup shredded peeled carrot (about one carrot)
1 cup shredded onion (one medium onion)
1 cup shredded white button mushrooms (two to four mushrooms)
1/3 cup minced scallions (about three scallions)
2 cups (loosely packed) coarsely chopped salad greens
1 tsp. salt
3 tbs. instant grits
4 tsp. unsalted butter or olive oil
1 cup shredded Swiss (Gruyère) cheese)

Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add all the vegetables to the boiling water along with the salt. Bring the soup back to a boil and boil, uncovered, for two to three minutes. Sprinkle the grits on top of the soup, reduce the heat to low, and cook gently for two to three minutes longer. (You will have about 6 cups.)

Serve hot in soup bowls, spooning about 1 teaspoon of the olive oil or butter on each serving and topping each of the bowls with a few generous tablespoonfuls of the cheese.

Recipe excerpted from Fast Food My Way by Jacques Pépin (Houghton Mifflin, 2004).