Recipe: Chilled Zucchini and Basil Soup

The summertime is the perfect time, if not the only time, for chilled soups. Sure, you don’t get the same heart-warming, snuggling-by-the-fireplace vibes that you do drinking a hot soup in the dead of winter. But a chilled soup is still delicious as f***.

But don't just stop at gazpacho. How about cucumber? Or this zucchini and basil soup. It's the perfect mid-summer harvest soup. Super simple, but tons of flavour. Serve it with a side of garlic cheese bread, and it's your new favourite summertime meal.

The recipe is adapted it from Emeril’s website, and will make about 4 to 6 meal-sized servings. Ideally you would make it a day in advance to let the flavours develop. Enjoy!


Chilled Zucchini and Basil Soup
Season: Mid-summer, autumn

Ingredients:

1 onion --- roughly diced
4 cloves of garlic --- minced
6 zucchinis --- roughly diced
4 cups vegetable broth
A generous handful of fresh basil --- chopped
2 tbsp butter (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a pot on medium-high heat, sauté onion with some oil (or butter if using) for 2 minutes. Add garlic, and sauté until onion turns transparent. Add zucchini, and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add broth, boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Blend with hand immersion blender, or in traditional blender in batches. Cool, cover and chill. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Kale Chips

The kale was growing really well, but in the past few weeks its taken on a load of diseases and pests: unknown fungus (causing the leaves to yellow), leaf miners (causing white spots and tunnels), aphids, and now the new leaves are growing in stunted and deformed. Poor suffering plants. So I chopped it all down and will plant something in its place. Arugula, peas and gai lan (Chinese broccoli) are the top contenders, due to their quick growing and cold tolerant nature.

Now I have a serious amount of kale to consume. I can’t give them away; some of the leaves are diseased and deformed. Enter kale chips.

A friend at work turned me onto this recipe. I made a batch from 2 big handfuls of kale, and the resulting chips just disappeared into my mouth. You can also make the chips in a dehydrator, if you like raw food. You can substitute for other green leaves, like chard or spinach. I love recipes that are versatile like that.

Kale Chips
Season: Late spring, summer, autumn

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kale
Vegetable oil --- e.g. olive, or locally sourced oil
A sprinkle of salt
Seasonings (optional) --- e.g. cayenne, curry powder

Directions:

Wash, dry and cut off the thick stems from the kale. If desired, tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces.

Brush leaves with oil. If you don’t have a brush, oiled fingers also does the trick. Lay on a flat cookie sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle salt and seasonings if desired. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, until leaves are crisp and slightly browned. Cool.

Garden Update: mid-July

These past few weeks have been nothing short of wacky… earthquake, G20 protests, another trip to NYC, heat wave … and here we are, already knee deep into July!

I just took a peek at my last garden update in mid-June. In comparison, the plants have grown considerably in 1 month. The pole beans have climbed to the top of the trellis, then to the top of a taller stake I added later, and is now bending over the divider and onto my neighbor’s side. The dill has grown almost 4 feet tall, with tiny yellow flowers all over. Cucumber plants are flowering and also climbing uncontrollably. Chives flowers have dried up, and their tiny black seeds are being saved. And I just saw the first signs of a tomato budding from a flower yesterday.

Unfortunately, aphids have found their way onto my balcony again. They attacked the arugula plant that I was trying to seed, so I ripped it out in my madness. Now that I've calmed down, I started using a very diluted solution of Dr. Bronners peppermint and spraying it on the plants twice a day. It seems to be working to get those buggers under control.

Here are some photos of dill, cucumber and nastursium flowers. Love, love, and love.