favorite summer soup

The Garden Zucchini Soup recipe from The City Gardener's Cook Book has long been my favorite summer soup. I realize that "summer soup" sounds a little crazy, so I should probably clarify that this can be served hot or cold. I actually prefer it as a chilled soup.

I started making this as a way to use up zucchini from the garden, back in the days when I was living at home and my Mother would plant a half acre garden. Of course, long gone are those days of picking everything fresh and complaining about having too much fresh zucchini and heirloom tomatoes. Still, I did create my own mini zucchini crisis last week by purchasing too much fresh summer squash at the market and have spent the last week trying to figure out ways to use it up. I have to admit, that feeling of zucchini overload really went a long way to making it feel like summer around here, well, that and the crazy heat wave we've had this past week in San Diego (what? you say 85 isn't a heat wave?).

So, once again, because this book is no longer in print and is, in fact, almost impossible to find I'm going to go ahead and post the recipe to this blog.



Garden Zucchini Soup
6 cups sliced zucchini
1 onion, chopped(naturally, I use shallots)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups broth
1-2 Tbsp curry powder
lemon juice to taste
salt and pepper

cook veggies in olive oil in a sauce pan for 10 minutes. Add curry powder and salt to pan, cook a further 1-2 minutes, add broth and heat until veggies are soft. Using stick blender, blend soup to smooth consistency. Add lemon juice and pepper to taste.

I love to eat this soup when it is hot but I prefer it even more after it has chilled and the flavors meld in the fridge. I am finding that the easiest way to store soups in the fridge is in a large canning jar. I used to try to stuff the whole sauce pan into my, usually, very crammed fridge but when I was back home the last time I noticed my mother keeps her leftover soup in a half or full gallon sized canning jar, which she has done for as long as I can remember. It is only now that I realize how perfectly this solution works. Vertical storage!!