How to make zucchini soups and veloutés

Zucchini is incredibly easy to cook, blend, and work with, making it a fantastic ingredient for creating endless soup variations—a true culinary playground.

Zucchini is one of those vegetables, like potatoes or cauliflower, that provides a versatile base for numerous dishes, including creamy soups, broths, and purees. Let’s simply call them soups—they’re our favorite!

This article aims to gather ideas for creating varied and creative zucchini soups, both for the joy of cooking and to use up any surplus zucchinis from your garden or a generous neighbor.

Blended or not?

Zucchini soups are generally blended into creamy purees, which is the focus of this article. However, it’s worth noting that zucchini can also be used in chunkier soups. Whether on its own or combined with other vegetables, this results in more rustic soups. In these cases, it’s best to keep the zucchini skin on, as it helps maintain the shape and adds a nice visual appeal.

Choosing your zucchinis

All zucchinis are suitable for soup-making, especially large zucchinis, which are particularly useful here.

While fresh, small zucchinis are generally preferred for their superior flavor, don’t discard those large zucchinis picked a few days ago—they make excellent soup!

With or without the skin?

This is the first question: should you peel the zucchinis or keep the skin? Here are the pros and cons of each option:

Peeling:

• Produces a smooth, light green, naturally creamy soup.
• Sacrifices some vitamins and nutrients.
• You can still use the peels, for instance, to make chips.

Not peeling:

• Retains the beneficial vitamins (as the skin is rich in nutrients).
• Results in a darker color (unless you use yellow or white zucchinis).
• May leave small dark specks in the soup unless you have a high-powered blender.
• If the zucchinis are very ripe, the skin might be tougher, which could be slightly off-putting.

Cooking

The only challenge is managing the water: add just enough at the beginning to prevent the zucchinis from burning—just enough to start the cooking process and let the zucchinis release their own water. Don’t add too much, as you want a nice, creamy soup.

This process is easier when making a large quantity.

Zucchini cooks very quickly—20 minutes is enough to make it tender enough for blending, or just 5 minutes in a pressure cooker. Don’t overcook, as this can diminish the flavor.

For the perfect creamy soup, a tip: after cooking, drain the zucchinis without discarding the cooking water. You can add it back gradually during blending until you reach the desired consistency.

Hot or cold

Soup is typically served hot, but zucchini is also great for cold soups, either on its own or with tomatoes. Unlike gazpacho, the zucchinis need to be cooked before blending to achieve the right texture.

Avoid adding cheese to cold soups, as it can solidify into unpleasant grains.

Season the soup with ingredients that enhance cold flavors: mint, basil, lemon juice, chili, or celery salt.

Adding liquid

Cooked and blended zucchini results in a thick soup—or a liquid puree.

You can add liquid during cooking to achieve the perfect soup consistency, such as:

• Water, if you want to keep the pure zucchini flavor (a personal favorite).
• Broth, whether homemade chicken broth or just a vegetable or chicken bouillon cube.
• White wine.
• Almond or hazelnut milk, to enhance the zucchini’s natural sweetness.
• Coconut milk for an exotic twist—it pairs wonderfully with zucchini.

Flavorful pairings

The liquids mentioned above can add a touch of flavor, but let’s explore some additional delicious enhancements:

• Fresh cream.
• Soy cream, which also adds smoothness, with less fat and no animal products.
• Olive oil, for extra fragrance.
• Experiment with other oils: sesame, hazelnut, or infused oils.

Cheese

In France, we have the choice (or at least, we believe we have the largest choice of cheese in the world!). In your country, you probably have less 😉 But you can try all kinds of cheese, as long as they are melty. But don’t use hard cheeses, which won’t melt sufficiently in the soup.

Gratinated zucchini soup

It’s better to use hard cheeses for gratinating zucchini soup: pour the soup into individual ramekins, sprinkle with grated cheese, and place under the grill or in a very hot oven for a few minutes—delicious!

Pairing with other vegetables

While we love zucchini soup made purely with zucchini—this vegetable has all the qualities needed to make wonderful soups—we also enjoy variety. So why not pair zucchini with other vegetables?

• Potatoes are traditionally used to thicken soups like leek or radish top soups, but with zucchini, it’s not necessary, as zucchini already provides enough consistency. Adding potatoes would only dilute the flavor.
• On the contrary, zucchini can add body to vegetables that lack it. So, zucchini-leek, parsley-zucchini, or radish top-zucchini soups are great ideas, with the zucchini flavor taking a back seat.
• You can also create a summer vegetable soup with zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers—either blended or in chunks, similar to minestrone or chorba.

Herbs, spices, and aromatics

We won’t list every herb and spice that can enhance your zucchini soup—there are just too many! Just know that zucchini soup is an excellent canvas for experimentation. Feel free to try out a new spice, a combination, or a blend like curry, ras el hanout, or garam masala. A culinary journey awaits every evening!

Beyond spices, consider:

• A few drops of balsamic vinegar cream on each plate for a visual and flavor surprise.
• Citrus zest (lemon, but also orange, which pairs wonderfully with zucchini).
• Or even citrus peels (zest and pith, the white part that adds a touch of bitterness), which you can cook and blend with the soup.

Toppings

Toppings are those little additions that decorate the surface of the soup, giving it a more refined appearance—this isn’t just two ladles in a bowl, it’s all about presentation!

The herbs and spices mentioned earlier can do the job: a twist of pepper mill over each plate, a sprinkle of paprika or sumac… A few coriander leaves, some chives, or finely chopped spring onions can also be perfect.

For something more original:

• Toasted buckwheat seeds.
• 2 or 3 arugula leaves.
• Small strips of cured ham or bacon, either as is or grilled.
• Small strips of salmon.
• A few drops of olive oil or balsamic vinegar.
• Thin slices of sautéed garlic.
• Edible flowers (you might find wild garlic or nasturtiums growing nearby).

Freezing Zucchini Soup

Freezing is a great option when you have an abundance of garden-grown zucchinis. It’s easy to freeze in the container of your choice. The texture remains quite good, and the flavor is nearly the same.

When dealing with a smooth, blended soup, defrosting is no issue—you can even do it directly in a saucepan with a bit of water to start, and it’s ready in 15 minutes.

Enjoying a good zucchini soup in the middle of winter is pure luxury!

Basic Recipe