Bursting with juicy summer vegetables, thick with crème fraîche, and laced with Provençal seasonings-each bowl of this zucchini leek soup is like a mini trip to the sunny South of France.
Food has a magical capacity to transport you to another time and place. It could be a coconut milk laden fruit smoothie taking you to the balmy beach of a deserted isle. Or, in the case of this zucchini leek soup, a late afternoon summer lunch taken on the shaded porch of a sun-soaked lavender farm in France.
This power of conveyance is one of my favorite parts of cooking (and eating!) and I firmly believe that the desire to feel something--or somewhere--is a key component in answering in the ever present "what should we have for ___?" question.
Even before I attended a French culinary school, I loved French cooking. Its simplicity and reliance on real, good ingredients made it feel so accessible to me as a budding chef. Many years later, not much has changed. While my skills and knowledge of global ingredients and techniques have surely broadened, simple French cooking still feels like home to me.
In this Michelin guide interview, Chef Jérôme Roy fondly refers to French Provençal cuisine as "the food of the sun" and that is exactly the sentiment I hope this zucchini leek soup invokes for you. Even if--perhaps especially if--your days have been a bit more cloudy, gloomy, and stormy as of late.
ingredients for zucchini leek soup
ingredient notes & swaps
- Green zucchini goes by other names depending on where you are, you might know it as a courgette or baby marrow!
- Tailor the amount of crushed red pepper flakes to suit your spice preference. I use a full teaspoon in my soup and it definitely gives you a little smack in the throat! Rest assured the spice does mellow as it sits in the fridge though.
- Choose a dry white wine like sauvignon blanc as the herbal and acidic flavors will add to your zucchini leek soup's lovely bright base. When I was shopping for wine for this recipe this Little Sheep of France bottle caught my eye and it was PERFECT.
- You can use either homemade or store bought chicken stock to make this soup, it's up to you. Homemade stock is often darker in color so it may cause your soup to be a less vibrant green. If using store bought, my fave brand is Kitchen Basics - best taste! You can sub with vegetable stock if you want to keep this soup vegetarian, just remember there is also butter and crème fraîche in it.
- Crème fraîche is like a thicker, less tangy sour cream and danggg is it good. I urge you to give it a try if you haven't already (look at you trying new things, we're cookin', we're learnin') but if you can't find it you can definitely use regular sour cream instead. Your soup will have a tangier flavor though.
We're cooking in butter (très French) and using olive oil just as a finisher, so hear me on this: quality is VITAL in this case! This is not the time and place for your basic cooking oil, so opt for a weighty olive oil that tastes delicious on its own. I recently got my hands on a bottle of Bona Furtuna Everyday Extra Virgin Olive Oil and it is SO good. Drizzled on top of this summery bowl of Southern French soup is the perfect way to appreciate the sunny Sicilian flavors their amazing oil brings to the table.
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zucchini leek soup
Bursting with juicy summer vegetables, thick with crème fraîche, and laced with Provençal seasonings-each bowl of this zucchini leek soup is like a mini trip to the sunny South of France.
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: about 4 quarts 1x
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds (about 3 large) leeks --enough to yield 10 cups sliced
- 1 white onion--enough to yield 2 cups chopped
- 2 pounds (about 4 medium) green zucchini--enough to yield 8 cups chopped
- 1 pound (about 1 large) Idaho potato--enough to yield 2 cups chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon herbes de Provence
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Salt, as needed
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 quart chicken stock
- ½ cup fresh parsley leaves
- ½ cup creme fraiche
- Good quality olive oil, as needed
- Shredded parmesan cheese, as needed
Instructions
- Prepare those veggies! Slice and thoroughly wash the leeks (refer to the procedure notes for detailed instructions), peel and roughly chop the onion, roughly chop zucchini (keep the skins ON for color!), peel and roughly chop the garlic cloves, and peel and cube the potato. Set everybody aside until you need them.
- Melt the butter in a wide soup pot over medium heat. Add the leeks, onion, herbes de Provence, red pepper flakes, and a good pinch (about ¼ teaspoon) of salt. Cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes, until the veggies are slightly softened and translucent.
- Stir in the white wine (I recommend having a sip 💁♀️) and let it sizzle for 2 minutes just to cook off the booze.
- Stir in the zucchini and garlic, add another good pinch of salt-flavor is developed in layers!--and let the mixture cook briefly for another 2 minutes or so.
- Stir in the diced potato, about half of the fresh parsley leaves (set the other half aside for later), and the chicken stock. The veggies should be mostly covered under the surface of the liquid, so go ahead and add some water to bring up the liquid level if needed. Keep in mind the veggies will produce water as they cook too.
- Increase the heat to high, bring your soup to a boil, then cover the pot and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potato and vegetable pieces are soft.
- Remove the soup pot from the heat, then toss in the remaining parsley leaves. Use an immersion blender to blend your soup until smooth, or, allow it to cool slightly before carefully transferring it to an upright blender. I like to leave my zucchini leek soup with just a bit of texture so I don't blend it all the way until the velvet stage.
- Stir in the crème fraîche, then taste and add more salt if needed.
- Ladle your zucchini leek soup into bowls, garnishing each with a beautiful drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of parmigiano to serve!
Notes
Leeks are capital D Dirty little veggies, so they need to be washed extremely well before cooking. Let me walk you through it.
- First, trim the dark green, extra fibrous tops off the leeks (as seen in the ingredients photo above).
- Then, trim the root end.
- Slice the leeks lengthwise so that you have two long halves of each leek.
- Chop each length into half-moon pieces that are about ½ inch wide as you can see here.
- Place the leeks in a bowl and fill it with cold water. Use your hands to swish the leeks in the water, separating the layers as you do so.
- Keep swishing! You'll start to see sand and dirt collecting in the bottom of the bowl.
- Scoop the leeks from the water (careful not to bring up the sand that is at the bottom) and transfer them into a second bowl.
- Once you have all the leeks moved, dump the sandy water out
- Repeat the process as needed until the water runs clean.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: soups
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: French
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups
- Calories: 254
- Sugar: 7.1 g
- Sodium: 578.7 mg
- Fat: 13.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.1 g
- Fiber: 3.8 g
- Protein: 4.5 g
- Cholesterol: 35.7 mg
Soup lover like me? Try my Roasted Cauliflower and Pumpkin Soup! P.S. the Cheesy Thyme Toast I serve it with would go great with this zucchini leek soup too.
dig in!
Enjoy & let me know what you think 🌙 💛
