Caroline's Zucchini Soup
Saturday, January 09, 2010
This is a simple soup, a variant of a recipe my friend Caroline gave me years ago. It's got great color, low fat but feels creamy on the tongue, and it can be served hot or cold. It also freezes well.
Ingredients
- 3-4 zucchini squash
- 1 onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1 quart of chicken or vegetable stock. I like Pacific Organic. Don't use bullion cubes!
- Thyme
Preparation
- Cut up the onion into smallish pieces, don't worry about them being too even since we'll blend everything anyway. Put some oil or butter into a pot, and put that on medium low. Add the onion, sprinkle on a little salt.
- Crush the garlic cloves, throw away the hard papery shells. Chop the garlic and add to the pot. You want to cook the garlic and onions until they start to turn translucent. You don't really want to brown them, but it's ok if that happens. This will take about 6-10 minutes.
- In the meantime, cut up the zucchini into about 1/2 inch cubes. When the onions are translucent, add the squash to the pot.
- Add enough stock to cover everything, and bring the liquid to a simmer. You want to simmer the squash until it just get soft, on my stove that takes about 12 minutes.
- Add some Thyme leaves, I use about 1 teaspoon of dried, or 1 tablespoon of fresh.
- Take off the heat. We need to blend this, the easiest way to do that is to use a stick blender. Remember, this is hot stuff, so be careful! If you're not sure what you're doing, you might let it all cool down a while first--you can reheat it later. If you don't have a stick blender, you could ladle it into a regular blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, add salt and pepper to taste.
Variations
- My girlfriend Patti likes to pour a bit of cream or half and half in this.
- Other spices that work for me are curry powder or a combination of basil and parsley instead of the Thyme
Just before adding the stock:
Finished!
Categories: Recipes