A healthy, spicy and stimulating starter to a lovely healthy dinner, this recipe for zucchini soup is flavored with curry powder, ginger, cayenne, and freshly ground pepper. Serve it chilled for an interesting and invigorating contrast of cold and hot. Vegetable stock, butter, and tomatoes enhance the natural flavor of the zucchini and create masterful culinary easy appetizers dish that is elegant and ambrosial. This is especially delicious accompanied with some toasted bread.
In easy healthy recipes, adapted from The Saturday Evening Post Fiber & Bran Better Health Cookbook, also makes a scrumptious vegetarian dish. For a healthier or vegan version, you can omit the butter and add cooked rice or mashed potatoes instead to make it creamy. The vegetable stock has to be prepared before you begin making this dish. You can buy vegetable stock already made and packed in the grocery or you can make your own vegetable broth, simply by sautéing onions, carrots, celery, and a bunch of other vegetables you have at hand like cauliflower, broccoli, beans, cabbage, spinach, and kale in a stockpot.
Add some aromatic herbs and then cover the vegetables with cold water and allow it to simmer for thirty minutes. Strain the vegetables and herbs and you have a delicious, aromatic vegetable stock. If you want soup with a thicker consistency, puree the vegetables in the liquid stock using an immersion blender, or use a regular blender, pureeing the stock in portions.
Ingredients: 3 small (2 lb.s) zucchini (diced), 2 yellow onions (peeled and sliced), 3 tomatoes (about ½ lb.), 4 cups vegetable stock, 2 + 1 tablespoons butter, 1 teaspoon whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon curry powder, 1/8 teaspoon ginger, ½ + teaspoon salt, Cayenne pepper, Pepper (freshly ground)
Preparation Instructions: 
Place a large skillet over medium high heat and melt 2 tablespoons of butter in it. Add the zucchini and onions and sauté until tender. Add the vegetable stock and cook 20 minutes. Slice the tomatoes. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in another skillet. Add the tomato slices and sauté for 1 minute. Pour the tomatoes into the zucchini mixture. Bring to a boil. In a bowl, blend together the flour, curry powder, ginger, salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Pour into the zucchini mixture, stirring well. Simmer for 7 minutes. Strain. Season with salt and pepper.
Zucchini comes in different sizes. Overly large ones have a lot more water and will result in a thinner soup. To avoid this, choose medium sized or small zucchinis. If you have only large-sized zucchinis, you can extract the moisture out of the vegetable before cooking it. Simply cut the zucchini into slices and spread on a shallow dish. Sprinkle with coarse salt and allow to sit for 20 to 30 minutes to draw the moisture out. Strain under cold water and pat dry before you make zucchini soup.
Source: www.gourmandia.com
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