Roasted Zucchini (And Other Vegetables) Soup
So I have a zucchini problem. Actually my house is completely and utterly over run with zucchini. I kind of have waaay to many tomatoes, yellow squashes, and eggplants too… I’m starting to worry the veggies may be planning a coup.
I should probably backtrack a little and explain. I’ve discovered a farmer’s market. It’s tiny, there is only one farm that actually attends. But that’s good enough for now. At least there are vegetables available, directly from a local farm. It’s cool, because they do one of those $10 fill this very large bag full of veggies, whatever you can stuff in there is yours kind of thing. So this is what I’ve been doing every week. I end up with my veggies costing about $1.00- $2.00 a pound. Better then I usually get at the grocery store. Add this to the fact that a friend from church has an extremely healthy garden and has been gifting us with veggies. (Check out this picture right below. The really large zucc is from my friends garden. Impressive, yes? I’m not sure I even knew they got that big. It’s next to a standard grocery store zucc for comparison purposes.)
You can now see why I have a major backlog of veggies, particularly zucchini. From what I understand from other blogs I read this isn’t the most uncommon problem this time of year. And fortunately I and most of my family like zucchini a lot. But either way something had to be done, and preferably use up a lot of zucchini at once. And so there was zucchini soup. I used up almost all my zuccs plus a bunch of eggplant and squash all at once making a big double batch. I had a bowl for lunch and then because I’m not totally ready for soup (still hot!) the rest migrated to my freezer in pre-portioned lunch sized containers. It’s going to be awesome for fall when I want a healthy, hot lunch (and the zuccs are no longer so plentiful).
I mostly figured this one out by just tossing stuff in the oven/pot. But I’m sure many others have made zucchini soup before. But what makes this recipe different is the roasting, and the mix of veggies. The roasting adds a lot of depth of flavor and the different veggies give it a twist as well. I’m sure you could toss in any other types of veggies to good effect. Give it a try with your veggie stash.
Roasted Zucchini (And Other Vegetables) Soup
Ingredients
- 4 Zucchini
- 2 Yellow squash
- 2 Small eggplant
- 1 Japanese eggplant
- Splash of olive oil
- 4 Cups chicken broth
- 2 Cloves of garlic minced
- 1/4 Teaspoon paprika
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Slice all the vegetables into aprox. 1/2” thick rounds.
- On two large foil lined baking trays lay out the veggie rounds flat. Pour a generous splash of olive oil on one of the rounds. Use a pastry or grill brush to spread and rub the oil on all the different rounds. Pour more oil as needed until each round has been lightly brushed. Salt and pepper the rounds. In the oven bake the veggies at 400* until well browned, flipping once midway through, so that both sides brown. (About 20 min.)
- Meanwhile begin warming a large stock pot over medium high heat. Add another splash of olive oil, minced garlic, paprika and saute.
- Remove the veggies from the oven and add to the stock pot. Add the broth to the pot and bring the heat down to a simmer. Simmer for about an hour.
- Allow the contents of the stock pot to cool slightly (to avoid burns while blending). Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until creamy. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- This tastes even better the next day!