Zucchini Season Tomato Soup

While I’m in complete denial that the end of summer is closing in, I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty pumped to have a cooler week so I could throw some soup on the menu. I could eat soup everyday for the rest of my life and still love it. I’ll take any excuse to make it. So my excuse this week: cooler days (It got below 70, so that counts) and zucchini season is in full swing! If you’ve ever had a garden, you know by August you have zucchini coming out of your ears and you’re practically begging your neighbors to take some as they’re out for their evening walk with their dog. If you’ve ever been my neighbor, you know this might be a true story. This is clearly not a new phenomenon. Proof from my grandma’s recipe box:

So, the rest of this week will be dedicated to using up the zucchini. I’m skipping over the zucchini bars and bread. Yes, I know they’re delicious, but you can only eat so many bars and slices of buttered bread…

Up first: Zucchini Tomato Soup!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium zucchini- chopped

• 3 carrots- chopped

• 4 stalks of celery- chopped

• 1 onion- chopped

• 1 bag of frozen peas- or fresh. I love fresh, but peas take a ridiculous amount of time to shuck…

• 3 large gloves of garlic

• Two cans stewed tomatoes

• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary- minced

• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme- minced

• 1 Tbsp fresh basil- minced

• 2 tsp sugar

• 1 tsp cardamon

• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

• Olive Oil

• Homemade chicken stock- recipe link below. If you use store bought, buy high quality- it matters. Shake a few sprinkles of Tapatio, or other hot sauce, into it while its heating up.

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Optional: Bay leaf if you’re not using homemade broth.

Okay, its time to talk for two seconds about this chopper! I’m going to sound like an infomercial here. It is the best thing I’ve purchased for the kitchen in years. It chops everything in seconds, and in uniform sizes. Plus, if you cry like a baby every time you chop an onion like I do- Problem solved here!

See how uniform all the veggies are? Perfection!

Instructions:

• Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic and chopped herbs. Stir and cover. Cook together for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

• Blend one can of tomatoes in the food processor or blender.

• Add all tomatoes, zucchini, sugar, crushed red pepper and cardamon. Salt and pepper the veggies to your preference. If you are using store bought stock, add a bay leaf to this mixture. Cover and allow to simmer for ten minutes. Stir as needed. Carrots and celery should be beginning to get soft, but not mushy.

• Add in homemade stock. I didn’t measure how much I used, but roughly 6 to 8 cups of stock. If you use store bought, this is when you should add the hot sauce.

• Simmer together about 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

• Serve while it’s hot! Garnish with parmesan and fresh basil. Goes great with crusty French bread!

Note: If your family is like mine, they get weird about not having any meat with their meals. Spicy Italian sausage would make the perfect addition to this mixture.