I know, sounds revolting.... and the pictures of it do not look appetising either..... but seriously, this soup is delicious!
Normally cold soups leave me, well, cold. If I think of gaspachio I think of cold insipid onion flavoured red water. Blergh! Not my thing at all.
This however is packed with flavour, refreshing and can be eaten hot or cold. Much nicer and really easy to make in big batches when you have a glut of courgettes. Simply freeze the excess and thaw for hot or cold soup another day.
Foods that can do double duty are important to me right now as I have run out of freezer space already, so anything that is going to be squeezed in now, has to be worth the effort of rearranging and making fit in any available centimetre. Think there is going to have to be a new (bigger) freezer budgeted in before the end of summer to be honest.
The garden is bursting with goodies now. I have countless kilos of beans (of many types), super sweet peas, sorrel, herbs (too many to list), kale etc etc in the freezer. We have started getting fruit from the trees, and the hedgerows are starting to fruit as well. The little wild plums are soooo cute and such a deep purple. The little cherries are quite tart and nice to snack on while I work in the garden.
As summer has hit with force, and we are experiencing temps in the mid to high 30's, something cool and refreshing for dinner is perfect. This has been in the mix every week since the courgettes started fruiting. Another favourite is melon de Charentaise (our region of France) with dry/smoked ham and feta cheese. Full of flavour, but cooling and refreshing after a long hot day.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Cold Courgette Soup
This is not really a recipe, more of a guidline. I normally see how many courgettes I have ready, then pull up a potato plant. Some of the spuds go in to the soup, the rest for another meal. When I don't have enough parsley in the garden I use lemon thyme.
1 or 2 potatoes - depending on size
5 or 6 courgettes
pinch of white pepper
half teaspoon (or to taste) of nutmeg
fresh parsley
Wash veg and cut into smallish chunks. Do not peel potatoes - that is where the fibre and vitamins are!
Put in to pot with a cup or so of water and bring to boil.
Add pepper and nutmag and parsley. Cook till potatoes done. Do not overcook or you will be left with a grey flavourless sludge!!!!
Whiz in blender or with hand blender. It should be a lovely green puree.... which unfortunately does not photograph very well....hmmm.
This is the perfect stage to freeze excess.
To serve, add some sour cream/soft cheese (eg; laughing cow, etc)/sprinkle of parmesan/croutons/herbs whatever you fancy.
NOTE: Yes, there is no onion, garlic etc in this recipe. This is because I am not allowed these vegetables. My recipes are relying on herbs and other flavourings to give them a boost at present. Feel free to add it if you like, but the nutmeg flavour will be masked.
You can make it a thick or thin soup by adding more liquid after pureeing. It is nice as a hot soup with a bit of milk added to thin it slightly. Makes it more substantial and filling.
Hi! Looks delish - will try it this weekend. I'm thinking of buying a place and the current owners want to leave me (probably have me buy) their MASSIVE chest freezer. Interested? It would mean a trip to Basel, though! /Janet
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea how tempting that is!!!!!! Both for a trip to see you and the furbabies, and for the freezer!
ReplyDeleteI am bottling fruit and veg now as no room in freezer. Neighbour tried to give me some round courgettes the other day..... told him I would take some if he took some long courgettes from me.... stand off...lol
2 courgettes, a head of broccoli and a few sticks of celery, inc leaves, with your spicing, and had it warm with some crusty bread and *loads* of salty butter. Yum! The cats were intrigued by the smell, too, but not enough to deign to try it. /Janet
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