ZUCCHINI SOUP – October 5, 2015

EXCELLENT ZUCCHINI SOUP – October 5, 2015
The other day I made the most delicious soup with zucchini. I still have large zucchini fruits on the garage floor and the other day I decided to use some to make a pot of soup. If it would be a flop, I could always give it to our farm cats.

We have at least 5 or 6 cats and they are great at controlling the mice around the yard so we want them to stick around. They get mostly leftovers, but at times I will cook or bake something for them. That is why I kept these zucchini; thinking that I could chop & cook them up into something in the coming weeks for our cats. I have already shredded, diced & frozen enough for all of our winter’s baking and casseroles.

When the soup was done, I decided to have a small bowl full. It was so good that I served it for supper and I got a thumbs up. Great! So here is the recipe!

1/4 cup butter
2 medium size onions
10 cloves garlic
10 cups diced chopped zucchini (for extra nutrition as well as looks, leave the peel on)
1/4 cup water
5 cups soup broth ( I cook a large pot of broth and freeze it in containers for making soups)
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder (This is optional and next time I will see how it tastes without).
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley ( or 2 tablespoons dried, or powdered*)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt.

Heat the butter and saute the onions, garlic and zucchini in a fry pan. Add the 1/4 cup water, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Put the soup broth and vegetables into a pot, cover and simmer for an hour.
Remove from heat and let sit for a half hour. Puree with a hand blender or if you don’t have one, use a blender. All of the veggies will be smooth but you will see tiny specks of peel throughout and it looks & also tastes great. This recipe will make about 4 litres.

*POWDERED PARSLEY
I grow parsley in the garden and of course it produces & produces. I have been picking & drying it in the dehydrator and then powdering it in the blender. This powder is stored in small plastic bags and frozen. I use it in much of our cooking, roasting, casseroles and soups. But it is also great added to smoothies. Parsley is packed with nutrition!

Hope you still have zucchini so you can enjoy this recipe as well.
I decided I will remove the seeds from 2 of the big zucchini I still have, dice and freeze them in 10 cup bags to make this soup recipe in the winter.

FREEZING VEGETABLES RAW
I have always blanched vegetables before freezing. Then in “The World’s Healthiest Foods” George suggests that blanching leaches out some of the nutrients and freezing raw allows us more nutrition, so I have changed the way I preserve some vegetables; and it is much simpler too. I still blanched the peas and beans as I was worried that they may not be as tasty, but next year I may do an experiment.
Have a great day, Winnie

April 17, 2016
I frozen 6 packages of raw green beans last summer. I just washed them, cut them into about 1 inch pieces, left them dry for a few hours and then froze them in plastic bags. I removed as much air as possible from each bag. This winter I cooked them for suppers and they were just as good as the ones I had blanched.