Courgette, tomato & basil soup, healthy comfort
This soup is a very Mediterranean-style version of a courgette soup. With the addition of tomato and basil it tastes like you find yourself sitting in a sunny Italian garden.
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
🥘 Main ingredients
- Courgettes
- Tomatoes
- Cherry tomatoes
- onion
- garlic
- lemon juice
- basil
- balsamic vinegar
- chilli flakes (cayenne or other)
This courgette soup is great to have ready in your fridge or freezer. It is nutritious and comforting. You can use any other topping like; seeds, croutons, or a drizzle of plant based cream.
Enjoy for lunch with a nice piece of rustic bread and a salad. Or enjoy it as a starter to your main.
🍵 …a little added vegan pesto
I always like to add texture to any of my soups. Today I chose for some pan fried cherry tomatoes (of course you can roast them instead). Add a little tiny bit of pesto on each tomato, that will make the real difference 🙂 Yummy!!
I like to use my own ‘super simple to make’ vegan pesto, because I always like to know exactly what the ingredients are. And on top of that when you make your own pesto, you can play with different ingredients.
But of course you can use a good shop bought vegan pesto instead.
The pesto does really make a difference to the whole courgette soup experience. It pairs beautifully with the soup and the tomatoes, it lifts up all the flavours and makes it overall more interesting.
You might want to serve it with a bowl of pesto on the side, so it can be used as a spread on some rustic bread.
💭 Ideas for other Mediterranean style soups;
- Minestrone, a delicious healthy Italian soup
- Salmorejo, the veganised version of the Andalusian rich soup
- Ajo Blanco, the first gazpacho in Spain, white gazpacho.
And please add @haricoco1 to your instagram post if you use this recipe. I always love to see the creations of others.
📋 Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 small courgettes chopped
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic chopped
- 2 large tomatoes peeled and diced, or 4 Tablespoons of canned tomatoes.
- 250 ml 1 cup vegetable stock
- 1/2 teaspoon peperoncino or cayenne flakes
- 3 – 4 sprigs of basil leaves only
- 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- salt
- pepper
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 4 cherry tomatoes cut in halves
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vegan pesto
Instructions
- Drizzle a little bit of olive oil in a heavy based pan, and sauté the onions with a pinch of salt for 3 – 4 minutes.
- Add the chopped garlic and stir for another minute.
- Stir in the chilli flakes (pepperoncino or cayenne pepper)
- Add the chopped courgette, and give it all a good stir so the courgette pieces get well coated.
- Stir in the chopped tomato (or 4 Tablespoons of canned tomato) and the vegetable stock.
- Bring to the boil, and leave it on a low simmer for approx. 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile you can make your own home made pesto. see recipe
- And prepare your cherry tomatoes by cutting them in halves, pan fry them (on high heat) in a bit of olive oil, when the tomatoes start bursting open a bit and start colouring pour in a little splash of balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt.
- Take the pan of the heat, and set aside.
- Once the courgettes are well cooked. Leave the soup to cool slightly before blending.
- Blend the soup into a smooth mixture and add 1/2 Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and the basil leaves. And pulse the soup once or twice more.
- Reheat the soup.
- Add salt and pepper to liking, check the seasoning, and lastly add two teaspoons of lemon juice.
- For serving decorate the soup with some of your halved cherry tomatoes topped with a little bit of pesto, and a basil leave.
