ZUCCHINI, ONION, and POTATO SOUP

I'm re-posting a post I wrote in 2010. I've had several people ask me for this recipe. AND I still make it every year with surplus zucchini and freeze a bunch. 

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I made this soup last night, and many times over the years. It freezes well, and tastes so good, pulling it out for a quick winter meal. (Another good use of garden zucchini surplus.)

ZUCCHINI, ONION, POTATO SOUP

3/4 virgin olive oil (I don't measure, just let it form a good puddle in the pan)

3 onions, sliced

2 potatoes, diced

3 large zucchini, diced

1/4 cup tomato paste

juice of 4 lemons

2 bunches of cilantro (you don't really taste it, yet it adds SO much)

salt to taste

Saute onions for about 15 minutes over medium-low heat. Add potatoes (when organic, I wash and keep the skins on) and saute a bit more. Add zucchini and tomato paste. Barely cover with water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on medium-low till everything is soft. Remove from heat and add cilantro and lemon juice. Puree in pan with an immersion blender, or in batches in blender. This is good hot or cold. I didn't think this would be so great without an added broth, but it doesn't need it! I like to serve it with some dollops of my homemade yogurt.

FRIED ZUCCHINI FLOWERS & FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

I'd mentioned earlier about wanting to fry up some zucchini flowers - the ones with the long stems are male flowers that will not produce 'fruit'. So I finally picked a few and tried them. I'd stored some extra egg mixed with milk in a little bowl in the fridge and a bowl of flour, corn meal and salt from trying fried green tomatoes, so used those same batter ingredients for the zucchini flowers. Just dip in the egg mixture (green tomatoes are 1/4" slices, and zucchini flowers kept whole), then dip in flour mixture and pan fry in a skillet with a bit of heated oil. Both were very good!

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Hmmm ..... Reading my old post with the addition of the fried flowers and green tomatoes sounds so yummy!

I'm still frying the flowers, tho I have a different recipe than above, and serve with maple syrup. So good, I need to make sure I leave some male flowers for pollination or I don't get many zucchini. In fact, I planted more zucchini this year just to have more flowers! Does that sound crazy! All those jokes about zucchini's being given away . . .