I still have part of the biggest zucchini that came out of my yard this summer. In the last two months, I’ve made two types of zucchini bread, stuffed zucchini, grilled zucchini pieces, added it to other soups and stir fries… and still it remains. Good thing zucchini is so delicious and healthy … and versatile!
Here is a recipe from the Nourishing Gourmet blog for Creamy (creamless) Zucchini and Potato Soup. It caught my eye when she posted it, and I finally had a chance to make it last night. It was very tasty, but it’s not the most substantial soup and definitely needed something else to supplement it — in our case, we ate copious amounts of bread from my mother-in-law that I pulled out of the freezer; it would also be very good with a good grilled cheese sandwich, preferably using some sort of white cheese like jack or gouda.
I did cut the recipe in half because it’s just me and JR. I also used homemade chicken stock since I figured it would add more depth of flavor to this simple combination of ingredients (not to mention all the health benefits of homemade stock). The other changes I made to the recipe were using butter to saute onion rather than olive oil (because butter is delicious) and I have several heads of roasted garlic, so instead of sauteing fresh garlic, I added about 3 cloves of roasted garlic. And I served it with some freshly grated parm cheese as garnish.
Here’s your recipe:
Creamy (creamless) Zucchini and Potato Soup
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves roasted garlic (or two cloves fresh garlic, minced)
1 T. butter
4. c chicken stock
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed (I used 4 small red potatoes)
3/4 tsp. dried thyme
2 c. cubed zucchini
Saute onion in butter with a little salt until onion is translucent. Add garlic (if using fresh) and saute around a minute longer. Add chicken stock, potatoes, thyme and roasted garlic (if you’re going that route). Bring to a boil and simmer 10-15 minutes until potatoes are fork-tender. Add zucchini and simmer another 7-10 minutes until zucchini is tender. Puree — immersion blenders are awesome, but if you don’t have one, puree in a regular blender in batches (being careful because boiling-hot soup splatters all over you and your kitchen are no fun).
Serve garnished with your choice of a pat of butter, a drizzle of cream, sour cream or parmesan cheese.