Perfect for summer - chilled zucchini and leek soup

I can’t emphasise enough how perfect this chilled zucchini and leek soup is for an Australian summer – it’s refreshingly satisfying on a hot day like today, and every featured vegie is in season right now. It also takes all of 15 minutes to cook, plus chill time.

Wild fennel, green and yellow zucchini, leeks and garlic

The vegies in this soup are also all so easy to grow and exceptionally good for you – you can find out all about my zucchini crop here and my leek crop here. I’ve also previously mentioned how to grow potatoes here. Ironically, this year’s potato crop has failed to sprout but enough potatoes hid during the last harvest that they’ve grown a new crop all on their own! Each time I pull up a purple cabbage I get another handful of spuds – how perfect is that! The single potato in this recipe adds creaminess without making the soup stodgy.

The sautéed greens, ready for the potato and water.

 As forecast in my last post, the zucchinis have now hit their peak growth period, aka the glut, where they’re the perfect size for picking in three days but double that size within another two days! So this soup is also perfect for dealing with that zucchini that hid under the leaves and went unnoticed until it was suddenly as long as your forearm.

I’ve used a frond of wild fennel as it’s growing in my front yard but dill will work fine. Tarragon or lemon thyme would also taste great.

The soup can be served hot or cold depending on the temperature in your part of the world.

Chilled zucchini and leek soup

Serves 4

2 normal zucchini (or 1 forgotten zucchini), diced

2 leeks, white stalk only, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium size potato, diced

A sprig of dill (or a fennel frond), chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

1.5 litres boiling water

Salt and pepper

Pour a good slosh of olive oil into a large saucepan over a low-medium heat. Add the leek and garlic and cook gently for the next several minutes, stirring regularly, until they’re soft and translucent. Add the zucchini and sauté for a few minutes, then add the potatoes, pour in the water, stick the lid on and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

Add the fennel/dill and blend the soup until smooth. If you have a stick blender (also known as an immersion blender), you can blend the soup hot or cold. Otherwise, let it cool before putting it in a normal blender.

Season well with salt and pepper. If serving the soup chilled, add an extra pinch of salt as the cold does subdue the flavours a little.

Place in the fridge until cool, then serve immediately.

Chilled zucchini and leek soup with fennel pollen

Heart-warming vegie soup

Sometimes life can be a little rough, with unforeseen accidents, petty politics at work or unexpected real live genuine betrayals that would have The Bold and the Beautiful scriptwriters slow-clapping in appreciation.

Usually the overwhelming instinct is to head for some greasy hot food, ice-cream or a bucket-sized glass of vino. For me, it’s chocolate and a lot of it, even if it is homemade raw chocolate, full of antioxidants and minerals, and infused with orange essential oil, which has antidepressant and anti-inflammatory properties. And therein lies the key. Indulge in your go-to comfort foods, but also seek out foods that nourish. Find something delicious that will promote healing and happiness for both the body and the mind.

This hearty, delicious soup ticks those boxes and best of all, it’s easy and you can use pretty much whichever vegies you have handy. For me this week that included organic supermarket carrots, a spring onion out of the backyard, a jar of my preserved summer tomatoes, and a bunch of Tuscan kale from my community garden plot.

Egg shells around baby plants stop slugs and snails

Kale is super easy to grow from seed, either planted direct or in pots and transplanted as 10-cm high seedlings. It’s also absurdly good for you, with plenty of vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acid and antioxidants. Give it a sunny spot with good soil, let it grow to a decent size over the next couple of months, then pick the small, tender leaves for salads or the larger leaves for casseroles and soups. Chop it finely and cook it a little longer than you would spinach. 

Kale will grow throughout the year. Happily, it prefers cooler climates like Canberra, where our winter frosts knock out the pesky white cabbage butterfly caterpillars and replace the kale’s often bitter, sulphurous summer taste with a fresh sweetness. The best way to deal with the destructive caterpillars organically is to put a finely-woven net around the plant to prevent the butterflies from landing and laying their tiny bright yellow eggs. Some garden experts suggest ‘planting’ fake butterflies around the plants so the real butterflies think the territory is already taken and leave. My margarine container-lid impostors had the opposite effect, attracting large numbers of lovelorn butterflies.

My happy kale plants in my community garden plot.

If you don’t protect your plants it’s best to inspect them daily for the eggs, which you can simply brush off the plant, and the caterpillars, which you can either squish or relocate to a distant park. Otherwise, they can do some serious damage and add some surprise protein to your green smoothie. Kale can also attract aphids but keep it strong and healthy with regular feeds and watering and it will be able to better resist them.

The lentils and sautéed vegies

Back to the soup - I also include a generous serve of lentils, which keep you full, improve digestion, support a healthy heart, help combat cancer, promote weight loss, and have good doses of iron, folate and potassium. Finally, I use fresh turmeric, which is just as full of vitaminy goodness but also anti-inflammatory and enhances brain chemicals that manage happiness, pleasure and pain.

So here it is, my hearty vegie soup.

Add a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to a large saucepan on the stove over a medium heat. Toss in some diced onion, kale, carrots, celery, parsley, a bay leaf and any other herbs and vegies you’ve got in the fridge or garden plus some finely grated turmeric. Sauté for several minutes until the vegies soften slightly.

Rinse a cup of dried orange lentils very well and add to the pan, along with your preserved or canned tomatoes. Stir well then add a few cups of your favourite stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and leave to simmer for the next 45 minutes or until the lentils have broken down and the soup has a lovely rich colour.

Season with salt and pepper and serve. A slosh of organic apple cider vinegar (white vinegar works fine) in each bowl will complement the richness of the soup perfectly.