Last year’s news: Piebald and Friday face zucchini while Hoosegow (tail visible at lower edge) flees, October 2018
Summertime. I’m an avid vegetable gardener, so you know what’s coming: zucchini!
Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave a boatload of it on your front porch, ring the bell and run. The fact is, I solved the problem of excess zucchini last year. I found a nifty way to convert it into a soup base that can be frozen in quart bags and used with true appreciation when the weather turns cold.
Lily, my inner fourteen-year-old, is all over this project. She of course doesn’t eat any animal flesh (ew!) and welcomes a departure from her usual diet of apples, broccoli and cottage cheese (plus the occasional entire pan of home-made chocolate fudge).
Here’s the recipe, from somewhere online:
2 lbs cubed zucchini
1 T butter
1 t curry powder
1 can (approx. 2 cups) vegetable broth (or chicken broth, if Lily doesn’t live at your house)
This recipe is easy to double and triple and multiply into infinity. Regardless of quantity, the same steps apply:
Melt the butter in a huge pot. Stir in zucchini, add broth and curry powder. Cook over medium heat until the zucchini is soft. Cool the mixture. When cool, run it through a blender.
Simple, right? Now I’m off to collect documentary evidence before the cubing begins.
Okay, I’m back. Here are today’s zucchini volunteers:
Zucchini with Grizelda
The largest zucchini, with Doc Holliday
You’ll notice both the dog and the cat are beating a hasty retreat. Zucchini does that to people.
I commence chopping.
Zucchini, August 15, 2019. 6 pounds chopped, 4.5 pounds to go!
Isn’t that a lot of zucchini?
Quiet, Lily.
Do you maybe have a recipe for zucchini bread? Just for something different, y’know?
We still have half a carrot cake from last week. It’s practically the same thing.
The zucchini went on the stove at 2:30 PM. It is now 5:30 PM (same day). 10.75 pounds of cubed zucchini has at last cooked to the appropriate degree of tenderness. Time to set the huge pot aside and let the contents cool overnight.
10.75 pounds of cubed zucchini in a huge pot
Overnight? I’m hungry now!
Kids! I pacify us both with a zucchini and feta cheese omelet.
Tomorrow will bring a lot of wonderful things, like approximately 12 quarts of soup base (if the blender holds up). Transforming an overabundance of zucchini into something usable is a golden opportunity for Lily and me to live the concept of making the best of what we’ve been given. It’s a good concept to remember, and I’ve been drawing on it heavily since all that bad news started coming from Bruce’s doctors last December. Pause. Breathe. Make the best of what you’ve been given.
Speaking of which, where’s that carrot cake?
I have a wonderful zucchinni, lemon blueberry cake. It allows you to pig out on cake while fooling yourself into thinking it is healthy because it contains a vegetable.
Yes, the cup or two of grated zucchini somehow mitigates all the sugar and oil. It’s a miracle! And, wow, lemon and blueberries, too! This sounds like true health food. If I wasn’t such a lardass, I’d ask you for the recipe. . .