Soup of the Day: First Harvest Dill

An improvised soup of mid summer vegetables that began as a means of incorporating some of those first harvested from our garden. I used two other recipes for inspiration, a pumpkin soup and a carrot soup. It was looking uncertain halfway through, but I kept at it, and it came out nicely. For the recipe to my potato, zucchini, banana squash, pumpkin, dill soup, click through.

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The first day we had this soup it tasted good, even thought the dill was unexpectedly strong. I used the stem of the dill plant, and it seemed more potent than the leaves. However, the next day, after the flavors had a chance to mix it up in the refrigerator, and after my expecting a strong dill flavor, we thought this soup tasted even better.



Ingredients:
3 zucchini, about six inches each
8 potatoes, small
1 banana squash, about six inches
1 c. previously cooked pumpkin
1/2 to 3/4 c. sour cream
Approx. 1/4 c. cottage cheese
Approx. 1 c. potato flakes (to desired consistency)

3 cubes chicken bouillon
Approx. 1 T. fresh dill (or to taste)
pepper and salt to taste

Substitution Suggestions:
Chicken or vegetable stock (instead of chicken bouillon)
Plain yogurt (instead of the sour cream and/or cottage cheese)
More fresh potatoes (instead of the potato flakes)

The approximating in the above recipe is due to adjustments as I went along, not keeping precise note of amounts used. No worries, though, just add a lower amount and adjust upward to taste. Easy.

Directions:
1. Chunk up the vegetables and cook in a large pot of water. Cut the potatoes especially small to reduce their cooking time. I used enough water to cover everything twice, but could have used less water. Cook until softened (i.e. until the zucchini becomes semi-transparent)

2. While the vegetables are cooking, add the bouillon, finely cut up dill, salt, pepper.

3. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the already cooked pumpkin. With the flame still on, use a hand blender to puree everything in the pot.

4. Blend in the sour cream and cottage cheese. If desired, add more salt, pepper, and dill to taste.

Notes: My initial struggle with getting the flavor right with this was mainly due to not having enough bouillon. I added a second, and then a third cube. Additionally, adding enough salt was key as well. In making this again, I would reduce the dill by 1/4 to 1/3. Although, dill will vary somewhat in its strength of flavor, so next time I will simply start with about half a tablespoon of dill and adjust upward to taste.

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