Zucchini – cucumber soup

Also this soup is a very quick soup to make!

You can find zucchinis and cucumber all year around but because of the refreshing taste it is especially a good summer soup.

And the vegetable earns some good points: courgette or zucchini is a very low calorie vegetables (17 calories per 100 grams). It contains no saturated fats or cholesterol. Its peel is good source of dietary fiber that helps reduce constipation and offers some protection against colon cancers.

  • 2 table spoons olive oil for frying
  • 4 normal sized (about 750 grams together) zucchinis (courgettes) either the light colored ones or the dark green ones (the darker ones give the best color on your soup but are slightly bitter)
  • 3 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 1 Turkish cucumber (they are about the same size as one courgette or use half of a large cucumber)
  • 1 liter chicken stock
  • some spicy pepper flakes (optional)
  • table spoon chopped mint (optional)

Wash the courgettes well, do not peel them (the skin thickens and colors) and cut in large dice

Peel the cucumber and dice it as well.

Heat the olive oil slowly and add the courgette dice. Stir and let it fry slightly until the courgette gets a little light brown color, add the cucumber too and stir in one more time. Let it fry shortly. Add the chicken stock and just let it cook enough for the courgette to get cooked (so your soup keeps the fresh green color)

Then use a  jug or stick blender to blend the soup. Blend until smooth surely not too long. Serve your soup with spicy pepper flakes and fresh mint.

And İ suggest to always experiment a bit, add a more cucumbers, or instead or mint you can also use dill, dill and courgette go very well together too.

Chicken soup

The lemon in Turkish chicken soup is very refreshing, the soup is delicious. And İ have added something what the Greeks do; boil the chicken with bay leaf and cloves and the soup is even more tasty!

For this soup İ use chicken legs, but if you make a big lot you can use a full chicken. And chicken breast would work too, only İ think the legs are better because the meat from the legs is less dry and more tasty for this soup.

  • 1 large onion cut in 2
  • 2 cloves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 carrot, peeled in a few large pieces
  • 2  chicken legs
  • 75 grams rice
  • 3 eggs yolks
  • 1 lemon juice
  • parsley, finely chopped

Boil the chicken with the onion, carrot and the cloves stuck in the bay leaf in 1 liter of water. Bring is slowly to boiling so it does not froth. Let it cook slowly until the chicken is ready.

Clean the soup through a stainer, set the chicken aside to cool down and you do not need the vegetables and herbs anymore. Add the washed rice and let it cook slowly for about 20 minutes.

Clean the chicken from the bones and the skin. Only use the meat, cut in small pieces and better just tear them in small bits

Then finish the soup off a short while before serving.

Whisk the yolks in and slowly add the lemon juice.

Preheat the soup again, slowly and do not let it boil again. First whisk in a full soup spoon hot soup through the egg – lemon mixture. Stir in well then add this to the soup, stir well and do not bring it to boil.

Sprinkle some parsley on each serving.

And what İ did not put in the ingredients list, but you can spice this soup a little bit up with a little spicy pepper flakes.

 

 

 

Garlic soup

About the quickest soup to make, but you do not always need long time cooking to serve something so delicious! Not a typical Turkish dish, nevertheless there is garlic here in abundance all year through and the soup has proved to be loved by the Turkish people too!

  • 2 table spoons olive oil for cooking
  • 1 large onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 garlic bulb, clean, does not need to be chopped
  • 2 table spoon flour
  • 1 liter chicken stock
  • 1 glass white wine
  • 1/2 glass of cream
  • some spicy pepper flakes
  • table spoon chopped dill

 

Fry the onion and the garlic until soft on low fire, do not let it turn brown.

Add the flour and stir in well. Add the chicken stock slowly and keep stirring constantly as you add.

Use a  jug or stick blender to blend the soup. Blend until smooth.. Finally add the wine and cream, stir in well, then the pepper flakes and dill and serve your soup.

 

Do not blend the soup with the peppers already in there, you will get a pink soup!