Award Winning Zucchini Soup

Submitted by spreadnjoy

"This is a family tradition when the zucchinis are ready. This soup has won first prize in our local county fair. It's not to strongly zucchini flavored, and has a fabulous italian flavor. I have NEVER found anyone who dislikes this soup, try it you'll see!!"

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 680.38-907.18 g sweet Italian sausage
• 793.78 g can diced tomatoes
• 2 (793.78 g) can beef broth
• 1-2 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 2-3 thin sliced unpeeled zucchini (you'll have to eyeball this one, because zucchini come in so many sizes!)
• 2 fresh minced garlic cloves
• 14.79 ml chopped dried parsley
• 4.92 ml dry basil
• 4.92 ml dry oregano
• 236.59-473.18 ml water

directions

1. Fry sausage in a soup pan, drain
2. Add all other ingerdients except water.
3. Add water in a cup at a time, I add 2 cups, then if after cooking the soup looks a bit thick, I add more.
4. Reduce heat and allow the soup to simmer 2-3 hours, or until the zucchini is tender and transparent.
5. Serve with a yummy crusty Italian bread, or garlic bread!

Reviews

[Lucky in Bayview]

Yummy soup. I thought I would miss the addition of carrots and celery, but I didn't. I used spicy Italian sausage and gave it a good rinse after browning just to get a good bit of the fat removed. The soup turned out really flavorful. I think next time I'll double the zucchini and use half the amount of sausage. Thanks for sharing this simple, flexible and delicious recipe.

 

[januarybride]

I thoroughly enjoyed this soup (for lunch) and DH will be surprised and delighted this evening at supper to find sausage in his soup. I didn't add any onions, then added some carrots, frozen spinach, and corn. I also added 2 tsp of Canadian Steak Seasoning (salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and much more). I am serving this tonight with some grilled flatbread. . .yummy! Thanks for a keeper.

 

[Jeff C.]

I use this as a base recipe for what I call my hunters soup. I love it because most of the ingredients are stuff I harvest locally. I have modified it slightly by using a meat mixture of equal parts hot sausage, sweet sausage and ground venison and I don't generally use water (stock instead). I make up about 10 quarts of this and then can it up in quart jars (11 pounds @ 75 minutes). This is a GREAT lunch for when you are at hunting camp. I usually heat it up and throw it in my thermos on those hunting trips where I will be in the field the entire day. Delicious. It also saves you a lot of time while at camp because it is all made up in advance. If you are going to can this, use older zucchini that is tougher and don't cook it long, just enough until it is hot. It will continue cooking during the canning process. If you do it otherwise, the zucchini will be mush. Thank you for this recipe, it is great!

 

[dripdripsplat]

Absolutely outstanding!!!! This soup definitely won praise at our house, and we will be cooking it quite often. I think next time we make it I'm going to try it with kidney beans and pasta added in, to kind of make a minestrone out of it. I just can't get over how good it tasted. In fact, I ate the leftovers for breakfast :)<br/><br/>I did make a few changes (which I know we all hate when people do)... Only had 1 lb. sweet italian sausage, used homemade beef broth, ran out of garlic so I used garlic powder instead, and left out the green peppers. I think the great thing is that because the soup is sooooo good, you really can play around with the ingredients a bit, and it will still be outstanding. Thank you for a wonderful addition to my recipe box!

 

[ladyfingers]

I never ran across an Italian sausage soup I didn't like--this is no exception. I added the zucchini, garlic, onion, pepper and seasonings while frying the sausage to let them soften up just a bit. Then I added the beef broth/tomatoes and water (if necessary). I like vegetables with a little crunch, so a short simmer (10-15 min) was all that was needed, and salted to personal taste. This is an attractive and delicious soup--thanks!