What do you do when your neighbour gives you a bunch of zucchinis that are almost the size of baseball bats?

This fall, my neighbour’s garden has been bursting with zucchinis and I’ve got them everywhere in my kitchen! A few weeks ago, I made chocolate zucchini cake. Today, I made something more traditional: soup. And it was delicious.

I didn’t intend to write a post today, but the soup was so good, I had to share it with you.

Here it is and it’s easy to make. All you need is a big pot and a handheld blender.

Bon appétit!

Creamy zucchini soup

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons (tbsps) olive oil (for sautéing the vegetables)
• 2 leeks with dark green stems, chopped in ½ inch rounds
• 1 very large zucchini (1000 grams) with peel on, cubed
• 1 large (or 2 small) potato, peeled and cubed (this will make it creamy)
• 1 medium-size cooking onion, diced
• 3 garlic buds, pressed
• 4 to 6 cups of vegetable broth (homemade, store-bought or bouillon cubes + water)
• 1 generous handful of fresh parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1-2 dried laurier leaves
• Sea salt, ground pepper & ground paprika, to taste
• Garnish servings with red pepper flakes or as desired

Procedure

Wash and chop all of the vegetables. Heat up a large soup pot with olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the leeks, zucchini, potato and onion and sauté them together. Turn down the heat to medium and keep sautéing the vegetables. Add the garlic. Lower the heat again and put on the lid. Let the veggies cook until they are very tender (about 20 minutes), tossing and turning them from time to time so that the flavours merge and veggies don’t stick to the bottom.

When veggies have cooked and are tender, add the vegetable broth, but add just enough so that it covers the vegetables. Bring the soup to a gentle boil, add the parsley, laurier leaves, salt, pepper and paprika and let this simmer with the lid half on for 15 minutes, mixing from time to time. Take out laurier leaves and process everything straight in the pot with a handheld blender until smooth. Adjust spices and add more vegetable broth or water according to taste. Serve. Garnish as desired. (Note that with any homemade soup, it usually tastes better if you let it sit in the pot, covered and off the heat for a while before serving).