If you didn't know, I was recently crowned Zucchini Queen. 😉
Mom went away for a few weeks only to return to monstrous sized zucchini in her garden. I volunteered to take a few off her hands (along with some tomatoes and anything else she was willing to part with.) I have been falling short in the home garden department this year.
Anyway, I love zucchini! You may be able to tell by the plethora of ideas I share using it. Here are a few of my favorites…
- Stuffed Zucchini Pizza Style
- Quinoa Stuffed Zucchini
- Zucchini Pancakes
- Giant Stuffed Zucchini
- Zucchini Pizza Bites
- Zucchini and Spaghetti Squash "Lasagna"
- Baked Zucchini Fries
See.. told you. LOVE zucchini. 🙂 Click here for all idea using zucchini.
I also hope to spread that love to my children..
Yes, that's Little Bean utterly fascinated. He's starting to use those hands more and more and I plan on getting veggies in them as soon as possible. 🙂
Anyway, the first thing I wanted to try with the zucchini was soup. I never had a zucchini based soup before but it makes sense. Zucchini is mostly water and it takes on flavors really easily, so why not?
Well I'm glad I tried! My experiment came out delicious! Here's what I did. 
- 1 tbsp olive oil (14g)
- 1 sweet onion chopped
- 500 g of a large zucchini cut in chunks with skin (and seeds) - It was about ⅔ of one of those zucchini's pictured.
- 2 tbsp bacon bits (14g)
- 2 cups of your favorite broth (I used some home stock I had in the freezer)
- 2 tbsp parmesan cheese (10g)
- 5 sprigs of thyme
- Kosher Salt
- 3 cups of Baby Spinach (85g)
Heat the oil in a medium to large saucepan and sauté the onion over medium-high heat until just browning. Add the zucchini and bacon bits and continue it sauté.
Once some of the zucchini starts to brown, add the broth and bring to a boil. Cook until the zucchini softens. It will depend on how large your chunks are. Mine only took about 5 minutes.
Once soft, use an immersion blender or transport the zucchini and broth to a blender. Blend until smooth then add in the cheese, thyme, a few pinches of salt and the spinach. Blend again.
Serve with an additional sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top and a few more thyme leaves.
I tried it hot, cold and at room temperature. By far I liked it warm the best but I've never been a cold soup person.
The recipe yielded 5 cups but I got 3 servings out of it. I'll give the the Nutritional Info by cup and let you decide how you want to separate it.
| Servings | Amt per Serving | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 1 cup | |||
| Calories | Fat | Fiber | WWPs | |
| 90 | 4g | 2g | old:2 | new: 2 |
| Sugar | Sat Fat | Carbs | Protein | |
| 5g | 1g | 10g | 4g | |
I make a similar soup all the time, but the way my Dad taught me, with a little bit of yogurt, some gorgonzola or blue cheese (I know, adding fat but with these flavorful cheeses a little goes a long way) and cajun seasoning. it is one of my FAVORITES!
My ancient recipe for chilled soup from the NY Times calls for young zukes, saving some matchstick tender-steamed cuts for garnish. Stir in curry powder (if you like it, it's great in this---around the zuke pieces in the pan as they start to cook. Puree, chill, add either cream, half and half, or my fave for fewer cals, yogurt, swirl in or stir. The dairy softens the flavor a lot when chilled, as in most chilled soups.
(no bacon, thyme, or spinach in the curry version).
Enjoy! if you try,
dottie
I'll bet it would be good chunky too! I would just add a hint of nutmeg (only a dash because it's so strong)to give it another layer of flavor. Sounds delish!!!!