Basil Zucchini Soup

5 from 4 votes
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Basil zucchini soup is a favorite all year. Yes, we go off-seasonal on this one–so delicious and cheerful, a beautiful soup perfect for casual weeknight meals or elegant company dinners.

Basil Zucchini soup in a blue and white bowl

I get the chance to get to know some of you through your comments and emails, and sometimes when I run into you in person. New friends, in a steady stream, are a delicious fruit of the labor I never could have imagined when I first started blogging here.

My new friend Brian is a case in point. I first heard about him through a cousin who told me there was a great food person in Lansing reading my blog who wanted to meet and cook together. Then Brian invited me into his Foodie Friends group on Facebook, and turns out we know and love a lot of the same people. He ran a tea room next door to my Aunt Pat’s antique shop years ago, and just like tea and antiques are a perfect match, they became fast friends too. And now they are neighbors, living on one of the most gracious neighborhood streets in Lansing, where the homes are vintage 1920s (and earlier) and the rolling greens of the Country Club of Lansing frame the scene. It’s stepping ever-so-happily back in time to be there.


Early this spring Brian invited me to cook and eat with a group of his culinary friends, people he met on a French cooking adventure in Provence with Patricia Wells (what heaven). They wanted to make Lebanese food, pulling recipes from my blog and diving in like the adventurers they are.

Brian and Ken’s home (Lansing’s historic Harper House) is an idyll, a place that, like its owners, gives and gives and gives. Pretty much everything at Brian’s can start with the word homemade. In the butler’s kitchen there is a barrel of red wine vinegar being fed with remainders of bottles of wine, a pantry wall of spices curated from travels, honey from their home apiary, homemade sauerkraut and homegrown horseradish and–of course my favorite—homemade yogurt.


The giving doesn’t stop there: in this home of all homes, the doors are opened for events that raise money for all kinds of good causes. Seems like there is so often a true connection between people who love to cook and, well, caring across the board.

Brian has been so great cooking so many of my recipes (including testing for my upcoming cookbook) that I was thrilled to receive a recipe of his to try in my own kitchen. Seems Patricia Wells was as delighted with Brian’s culinary interests and his extra-wow soup as everyone else–she included his recipe for zucchini soup with fresh basil in The French Kitchen Cookbook.

You know how it is with the Lebanese: good friends aren’t just good friends. They’re cousins. They’re family. Even Brian’s blonde-blonde hair couldn’t keep me from calling him cousin from here on out.

Basil Zucchini soup in a blue and white bowl
5 from 4 votes

Basil Zucchini Soup

By Maureen Abood
The flavor of this soup will knock your socks off! And it’s had with such ease, owing to the basil being added at the very end, after the soup is cooked…a very simple soup to eat any day of the week, and good enough to serve at an elegant dinner party. The recipe is adapted from Patricia Wells’ The French Kitchen Cookbook.
Servings: 8

Ingredients 

  • 2 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 pounds zucchini, cut in 1-inch slices
  • 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
  • Fine sea salt and black pepper, to taste
  • Big handful basil leaves
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, lightly whipped (unsweetened)

Instructions 

  • In a stock pot or 8-quart pot, heat the olive oil over low heat until it is hot but not smoking. Add the sliced onions and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Saute the onions for about 8 minutes, or until they are soft and translucent, but not browned, covering them and stirring occasionally.
  • Add the zucchini to the pot along with the chicken or vegetable stock and season with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the zucchini is softened.
  • Remove the soup from the heat and allow it to cool, uncovered, for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to release steam. Stir in the fresh basil leaves just before pureeing. In a blender, puree the soup in batches and return to a smaller, clean pot (a 3- to 4-quart pot). Or, use an immersion blender to puree the soup in its pot.
  • Taste and add more salt and pepper, if needed. Serve the soup heated through, room temperature, or chilled. Spoon a dollop of the lightly whipped cream in the center of each bowl just before serving.

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Author: Maureen Abood
Servings: 8
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26 Comments

  1. I’d like to try this recipe. I see the ingredients include cream; however, the directions do not include how or when to use the cream. Please clarify this. Thank you,.

  2. I’m missing the option to print this recipe. And would appreciate any nutritional analysis you could provide with your wonderful recipes!

    1. Thanks Joann–this was an older post and the recipe needed formatting–it’s all set and you can print now! As for nutritional, thank you for the suggestion. I’ll keep that in mind for future plans for the site.

  3. I cannot eat dairy cream, do you think this soup will be OK using a coconut milk product such a coconut cream or coconut evaporated milk?

  4. I am ordering your book! Brain has offered to have you sign it for me as it is a gift to an awesome friend who’s Mother is Lebanese My first experience in the 60’s no less with Lebanese food was at there home. Can’t wait to give this to her in memory of her wonderful Mother who passed away last Spring. I will be in line for your new book also 🙂

  5. You should try Brians Califlower soup too. Had it years ago at a dinner st his house. Awesome. And now Califlower used in so many ways going to try pizza crust made out of Califlower . FYI have 142 Califlower plants started for this years garden. Yum Happy cooking.

  6. Your comment on cousins struck a familiar note. Also I wanted to tell you all I am reading a book by Anthony Shadid that some of you are sure to have heard of. I got mine at Amazon, below are the details:
    House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East
    Shadid, Anthony
    Sold by Media Overstock Distributors – “5 STAR SELLER RATED”

    It is everything the critics say it is, I can’t wait to read another chapter each day. Anthony is an American from Oklahoma that used to write for the Washintgon Post and is quite a story teller. He died rather young but this book is filled with Arabic wirds, explained, also explained is the general temperament of a typical Christian Lebanese person still living in Lebanon. It can be very funny and very sad. He rebuilt his great grandfather’s stone home, it is quite a story.
    best, Jerry

  7. You get to meet so many fun people through cooking. Brian and Ken have such a lovely home.

    I make a soup very similar but use a cup of or two (depending on desired consistency) of low fat buttermilk instead of the heavy cream. I serve the soup chilled with a swirl of buttermilk and some fresh chopped basil. It is very refreshing.

  8. Thank you for sharing pics of a most gracious and lovely home and of your new found cousin, Brian. And, yes, I second Michael’s comment, Las Vegas looked like just what it should be: fun!

  9. Hi Maureen,
    I really enjoyed today’s post… I like when you take expeditions… Brian’s house is beautiful.

    Regarding the red wine vinegar…

    You can actually do that? — take your old red vinegary wine and mix it all in a small barrel and get
    Good “red wine vinegar”? Did you taste some? I’ve never heard of that… I’ve been throwing my old vinegary red wine down the sink…

    Hope you’re doing well Maureen you looked like you were having a lot of fun in Las Vegas…

    1. Hi Michael–great question. The vinegar is like other cultured foods in that it has to start with a “mother” from another batch of vinegar, then you keep adding to it over time with the leftover or other red wine and it will all become part of the vinegar! If you try it, let me know!!

  10. Looks wonderful-can’t wait to try! I can just picture you loving every minute of cooking in Brian and Ken’s amazing house. How much na-na am I supposed to put in?

    1. Thank you Geralyn!! That mint reference was a no-no (I corrected it!), but you could add a few sprigs and it will be delicious! Such a delicious soup. Let me know how you like it…

  11. Cousin Maureen – what an absolute treat to see this post – you really made my day!! Our kitchen and home are always open to you and I look very forward to more cooking adventures down the road. From your biggest fan, Cousin Brian!!

  12. I’ve been following your blog for awhile now, ever since my Aunt Pat (yes I have one too) told me about you. Literally found myself laughing out loud at your comment “you know how it is with the Lebanese: good friends aren’t just good friends. They’re cousins. They’re family.” It’s SO TRUE!!

    Thanks for adding a bit of brightness to my day!

    1. In my family it was not only cousins. I had so many aunts too. I don’t think I realized until I got into high school that many of them were not actually my aunts. But still I’m so glad they were part of my extended family. It was a nice way to grow up.

  13. Perfect timing! I’m on a soup roll this weekend, and headed to our local Farmer’s Market. I suppose local zucchini won’t be available yet, but I’ll probably find basil! Fun story about meeting your new friend. Lovely pics.

  14. My daughter Barbara did some testing of your new book recipes. I was lucky to be visiting when she served many of the dishes. I am anxious to make this soup recipe to serve to my family.