Recipe: Courgette, red chilli and coconut soup

My neighbour very kindly dropped over some fresh vegetables from her garden including some fabulous courgettes. You will know from my recent post, 'Five ridiculously tasty things you can do with courgettes', that I am a big fan of courgettes. They are in season at the moment and can be grown in Ireland which means they are readily available. There is so much you can do with them. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to spiralise all of my neighbour's courgettes before they go bad, I decided to make a dish that will freeze really well and that I can pull out of the freezer when short on time.

You might traditionally think of soup as a winter dish, but I think it can be good all year around, especially if you add some zesty or spicy flavours to freshen it up a bit. I love red chilli in soup to give it some heat and for this soup I also went with coconut and lime to bring some summer flavours to it. It is pretty easy to make and very handy to have in the freezer. This recipe serves four. I made three batches in one go, just to use up some of the courgettes.

Ingredients:

1 courgette

1 onion

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 tablespoons of coconut oil

1/2 red chilli

750ml of vegetable stock

200 ml of coconut milk

Juice of 1/2 a lime

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a pot. Peel and chop the onion and add it to the pot and cook on a medium heat for five minutes.

2. Chop the red chilli and add it and the garlic to the pot and cook for a further two minutes.

3. Chop the courgette into bite sized pieces and add to the pot. Cook for a further five minutes.

4. Add the stock and bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to allow the soup to simmer for 15 minutes. Add the coconut milk and cook for a futher five minutes.

5. Season with sea salt and add the lime juice.

Optional: To finish, add a little coconut cream, chopped red chilli and coriander.

#recipes #food #snacksdips #soup