After my first experience with fennel a couple years ago, I’ve become a bit obsessed. Fennel is in season year-round (check out what food is in season when!) but I seem to always use it as a transition vegetable. I love to work it into recipes when the season is changing. For this one, I use some of the summer’s zucchini roasted with fresh picked fennel, onion and garlic.
The farmer for our CSA grew fennel on request, and only two of us wanted it so I got several! The first week we got some was rainy and dreary, definitely calling for soup. Since I had some HUGE zucchini I decided to pair them with the fennel. The recipe calls for 2-3 medium to large zucchini, but I used one large zucchini the size of a cat!
The reason for roasting the vegetables is that wonderful thing I’m always talking about, caramelization. That’s the natural sugars in the food getting toasted which adds a wonderful flavor you can’t get from simply boiling them.
If you don’t have an immersion blender, don’t blend the hot soup in a standing blender. You’d need to let it cool first so you don’t have scalding soup explode all over you. I highly recommend an immersion blender as a kitchen necessity. I use it for soups, jam, apple butter, and more!
This is my first soup of the season, but I’m always looking for new soups to try. What’s your favorite?
Zucchini Fennel Soup Recipe
Fennel is in season year round (check out what food is in season when!) but I seem to always use it as a transition vegetable. I love to work it into recipes when the season is changing.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2-3 large zucchini
- 1 fennel bulb
- 1 yellow onion
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled
- 3 TBS coconut oil or olive oil, (1.5 oz)
- 4 cups stock, (32 oz) I used goose, chicken, turkey or vegetable is fine
- 1/4 cup orange juice, (2 oz)
- Pinch of salt, to taste
- Pinch of pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup chopped fennel fronds
Instructions
Cooking Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Trim zucchini ends and cut them into large chunks. Slice the fennel bulb into four chunks and slice the onion into rings.
- Toss the zucchini, fennel, onion and garlic with the oil and spread into a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 30-45 minutes until everything is very tender and golden brown.
- Place the roasted vegetables into a large pot and add the stock and orange juice. Simmer for 5 minutes and blend with an immersion blender.
- When the vegetables are well blender you can strain it if your fennel is very stringy.
- Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon into bowls and garnish with chopped fennel fronds.
Notes
Approximate cost/serving: This cost me almost nothing because I grew all the vegetables or got them in my CSA. I used homemade stock which also saved me some money. In total this only cost me about $1.30 so just 22 cents a serving. If you buy the fennel and zucchini it will of course cost more but should still be under $1 a serving.
Vegetarian/Gluten Free:Â This is naturally vegetarian, gluten free and vegan too.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
5Serving Size:
5 ServingsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 128Saturated Fat: 7gSodium: 805mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 2gSugar: 5gProtein: 2g
This soup looks amazing! Love the flavors – zucchini and fennel sound like they’d go together really well. Love your photos too!
Thanks so much Sara!
I love that your CSA took requests. Fennel is one of those foods I am still on the fence about. I don’t absolutely love it, but I’ve had dishes lately that are moving me more in that direction.
Yeah, it’s still a once in a while challenge ingredient for me. I’ve ended up really liking it in several dishes but it tends to be a surprise every time because I don’t like licorice! The Flavor Bible has really helped me in figuring out recipes to make with it.
I received some fennel and zucchini in my CSA and I’m trying to figure out what to do with them. I came across your recipe and it sounds great except for the OJ. Do you think it’ll still be good if I omit it?