Zucchini Soup

I woke up with a terrible sore throat this morning. I mean it was that pain waking me up and it was so hard to gulp. It is not a kind of feeling I’m familiar with as I rarely fall sick even in the coldest weather. I have such a strong body that I don’t need to wear so thick clothes during Winter while everyone tries to cover their whole body, even their foreheads. My friends are always surprised how I can bear such freezing degrees. When they ask me how, my constant answer is related to what I eat. And I recommend them to do the same. For one thing, we always have a jar of nuts ( a mixture of walnut, hazelnut and almonds) on our table in the kitchen, so it’s easier to remember to eat these as they have lots of benefits for health. Even if I don’t have time for breakfast in the mornings before leaving for work, I grab a handful of nuts and eat them on the way. I have the necessary energy thanks to these nuts during the day as they prevent my body to get weak. Another thing that we always have in our pantry in Winter is grape molasses, which I told about in another post. We either eat it mixing with tahini (sesame seed paste) at breakfast or have a spoonful of it like cough syrup at nights. We try to have grape molasses at least three times a week in this way. These are two important parts of our eating habits during Winter. We absolutely owe them a lot. But how come I had that unbearable throat pain this morning? I have no idea! Maybe because of hectic weeks at school I’ve had recently or the crowded classes I’ve been teaching. To prevent the illness from going further, I took some vitamins and drank herbal tea during the day.

Although I felt better at the end of school time, I didn’t want to prepare a complete meal for dinner as I was off my food. The only dish I could eat was a warm soup. When I opened the refrigerator, I saw we had almost nothing left except a few zucchinis. I didn’t know a soup with zucchini, not so common here. Remembering that a close friend mentioned a zucchini soup she cooked before, I took a deep breath of relief. I called her without wasting any more time and got the recipe from her. The result was incredibly tasty and I had two bowls. This was my total dinner, but it was enough for me, at least today. (drawing by mom)

Zucchini Soup

• Author: zerrin
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 2 zucchinis, thinly chopped
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 4 tbsp yogurt
• 2 tbsp flour
• 5 cups hot water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt to taste
• Fresh dill and red pepper flakes to garnish

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a pot and saute onion and garlic. Add in chopped zucchini and saute them for about 5 minutes.
2. Pour hot water into it and bring it to boil.
3. Mix yogurt and flour in a bowl. Do not pour it directly into the pot. Take some hot water with a ladle from the pot and add it little by little to yogurt and flour mixture. This helps yogurt to ‘adapt’ to the heat of the soup. Otherwise, it goes bad.
4. If it’s still cold, add some more hot water into it and mix well.
5. Pour the mixture into the pot, but don’t hurry while doing this. Stir well and mix it with a blender until smooth.
6. Boil it a few minutes more. Add salt and serve it hot.
7. You can garnish it with fresh dill and red pepper flakes.