Bludgeon in the Garden!

This morning, I very nearly overlooked something in my garden. Apparently, I had been overlooking it for some time. There on the zucchini plant, hiding under the leaves, was a bludgeon of a squash, weighing in at a hefty 6 pounds. Of course, the plant had put all its energy into creating this bludgeon and failed to make any small, reasonably sized, tender squashes.

In years past, I have done the same sort of overlooking and have made zucchini bread, muffins, patties, and pickles. I decided to try something new (and easy)!

Cream of Zuke Soup:

Tools/Untensils

• 2-qt sauce pan with steamer basket.
• 4-qt.heavy stock pot.
• 2-cup glass beaker with handle.
• Immersion blender.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds zucchini (or other summer squash), cubed in 1″ pieces.
• 3 Tbsp. butter.
• 2 Tbsp. unbleached flour.
• 1/2 tsp. “Better than Bouillon” seasoned vegetable base.
• 2 and 1/2 cups water.
• 2 cups milk.
• Garnishes (grated or cubed cheese, shredded beets, toasted sunflower seeds, sliced basil leaves, crumbled oregano, croutons, etc.) (optional).

Directions

1. Put 2 and 1/2 cups water in sauce pan, place squash in steamer basket, cover with lid, steam until tender, remove from heat.
2. Remove squash from steamer and pour steam water into beaker adding the “Better than Bouillon” and stirring to blend.
3. In stock pot, melt butter over medium/low heat.
4. Add flour to butter, stirring to blend. Mixture will thicken.
5. Pour 2 cups milk into glass beaker and heat in microwave for 1 minute.
6. Add milk to butter and flour mixture in stock pot, stirring to blend. Mixture will thicken again.
7. Add cooked squash to stock pot mixture and blend with immersion blender.
8. Serve hot, cold, or room temperature with (or without) your choice of garnishes.

Note: You can vary the flavor of the soup with spices such as nutmeg, curry powder, smoked paprika, etc. After tasting several versions, I came back to the plain old soup. I love the flavor of fresh zucchini and butter!

Annie Hughes’ articles can be found at www.redwingranchco.com.