Savory Zucchini Potato Soup

Photo by Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis on Unsplash

Looking for a soup for all seasons? Let Zucchini Potato Soup fill the bill. It's low-fat and light yet filling. It's power-packed with nutritious goodness, and enhanced with the perfect blend of spices and herbs.

This recipe serves a party of 6 or more. If you have a food processor or a blender, you can make it. Here's how.

Step 1: Gather Your Ingredients

To create a robust soup base, you will need:

Step 2. Prepare the Vegetable Broth 

Wash and coarsely chop your zucchini squashes, potatoes, carrots and onions. There is no need to peel the potatoes unless you prefer doing so. Sauté these vegetables together with a generous dash of your best olive oil, or heat them up in a non-stick pot if you'd prefer to go oil-free. As your vegetables become just slightly browned, add the parsley, pepper and salt.

Add enough water to cover these ingredients and create a savory broth.

Cover the pot.

Allow broth to simmer for 25 minutes. 

Drain, while reserving the broth.

Step 3. Prepare the Hearty Soup

Sauté the chopped clove of garlic in a pan lightly lined with olive oil until the garlic is golden brown. Add the zucchini-carrot-potato mix. Toss in the chopped basil and tarragon.

Add a pinch of cayenne pepper and salt and pepper to taste. 

Stir well.

Blend reserved vegetable broth into the soup.

Step 3. Simmer and Cool

Allow soup to simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes. 

Let the soup cool down. Pour just over half of the cooled soup into a food processor and purée the mix.

Pro tip: Why cool the soup before pouring it into a food processor or blender? Steam can quickly rise out of hot mixes and fill up the machine, splatter out and cause burns. Plus, pouring anything super hot into machines with plastic parts just isn't an appealing idea, even if the machine parts are all food-safe. So, if you want to speed the cooling process, use ice and a large spaghetti strainer and pour the mix through it.

Step 4. Heat and Serve

Add the puréed part of the mix back into the pot with the rest of the soup.

Heat and stir for 3 minutes.

Serve hot. This soup goes well with a fluffy bowl of couscous, rustic rolls or homemade bread.