If you’ve spent anytime at the Market Square Farmers’ Market over the past few weekends, you’ve noticed an abundance of summer squash. This simple recipe for Mahasti’s Summer Zucchini & Poblano Soup is a great alternative to preparing zucchini the traditional summer way – standing over a hot grill.

Incorporating poblano peppers adds a slightly sweet and earthy flavorful without overwhelming your taste buds with lots of heat. In case you missed her cooking segment on WBIR last Saturday, we’ve shared Mahasti’s on our blog so grab some local homegrown squash on your next shopping trip and give this recipe a spin in the comfort of your kitchen.

Enjoy!

¼ cup olive oil

1 medium onion, peeled and diced

2 large garlic cloves

1 large poblano pepper, cored, seeded and sliced

5 medium zucchini, ends removed

4 cups water

1 bunch cilantro

2 tsp salt

Peel and dice onion and set aside. Peel garlic, roughly chop and set aside. Rinse pepper, cut down the middle, remove stem and seeds, and cut into 1inch strips and set aside. Remove the ends off all of the zucchini. Cut 4 of the zucchini into 1inch rounds and set aside. Shred the remaining zucchini and set aside separately.

Remove about 1/2 inch off the bottom of the cilantro stems. Place the cilantro in a large bowl of cold water, swish around, and then lift the cilantro out of the water. Repeat the wash process with fresh water until there is no dirt left in the bottom of your bowl when you remove the cilantro. Roughly chop the cilantro and set aside.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until onions are translucent. Add zucchini, pepper and water. Bring the soup to boil, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Add cilantro and salt and blend with an immersion blender until soup is smooth. If using an upright blender, wait for soup to come to room temperature before blending to avoid burning yourself.

After soup is blended add the shredded zucchini. If you used an immersion blender soup will be ready to serve immediately. If you cooled your soup in order to use an upright blender, the soup can be re-heated after you add the shredded zucchini.

Serve with Flour Head Bakery bread and enjoy.

Serves 8- 10

Mahasti’s variation on pozole verde is a great excuse to visit some of Knoxville’s Mexican and Latin American markets for the tomatillos and poblano peppers called for in this recipe. Share your version with us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Ingredients

9 cups Water

3 Chicken Breast, bone in with skin

2 Bay Leaves

2 Poblano Peppers

1.5 lb Tomatillo

1 cup Cilantro, leaves and stems

1 cup Onion

3 lg cloves Garlic

¼ cup Oregano

3 – 15.5 oz cans Bush’s Golden Hominy, drained and rinsed

1 Tbl plus 2 tsp Salt

For Serving:

Shredded lettuce

Sliced Radishes

Diced Onion

Cilantro leaves

Thinly Sliced Jalapeno

Sour Cream

Tortilla chips

Rinse chicken breast in cold, clean running water. Place chicken and bay leaves in large pot covered with 9 cups water. In a large pot, bring water to boil. Reduce heat to low and cook chicken for 25 minutes. Remove chicken from pot. Discard bay leaves. When chicken is cool enough to handle discard skin and shred chicken. Reduce heat to low.

While chicken is cooking, rinse, de-stem, and de-seed poblano peppers, set aside. Rinse and de-husk tomatillos, set aside. Wash cilantro, leaving stems attached. Peel and cut onion into medium size pieces. Peel garlic. Pick ¼ cup of oregano leaves. Drain and rinse hominy.

Place poblano peppers, and cilantro in the jar of your blender. Remove 1 cup of cooking liquid from the pot of chicken and add to the blender. Blend the peppers until smooth. Pour most of the blended pepper mixture into a large bowl, leaving about 1 cups worth behind in blender.  Add tomatillos, onions, garlic and oregano to the blender and blend until smooth. Pour tomatillo mixture into poblano mixture.

When Chicken has been removed from pot – add tomatillo-pepper mixture to pot. Add shredded chicken, hominy and salt. Increase heat to medium, stirring occasionally bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer soup for 15 – 20 minutes.

Serve hot with Sides of shredded lettuce, sliced radishes, diced onion, cilantro leaves, jalapeno, sour cream and tortilla chips.

Serves 10 – 12

¡Esperamos que lo disfruten!

If you weren’t up early on Saturday tuned in to WBIR, you missed Mahasti presenting what’s sure to become a favorite for gatherings of family and friends.

Simple to make, warming and good, this soup’s one to prepare in advance and have on the stove top for snackers while the “big dinner” is in the works.

The Tomato Head’s Bacon and Cheddar Soup

½ lb bacon, diced
1.25 cups celery, finely chopped
½ cup onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 – 2 small jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped
1 Tbl fresh thyme
1 ½ stick butter
2/3 cup flour
6 cups water
3 cups heavy cream
14 oz mild cheddar cheese, shredded
12 oz smoked cheddar cheese, shredded

In a 6 quart pot over medium heat sauté bacon until bacon is crisp. Add celery, onion, garlic, jalapenos and thyme. Sauté the vegetables until onion and celery are translucent. Add water, and cream. Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium skillet. Add flour, whisking constantly until the mixture is smooth. Add the flour mixture to the soup and stir constantly until the soup thickens slightly. Add cheeses and stir soup until cheese has melted.

Serve.

You can’t deny the crocus, daffodils, Bradford pears, rain and robins. Spring is here. And with spring comes a new season in the kitchen. As your cravings begin to seek out new seasonal flavors, this soup, Carrot Orange topped with cranberry mint crema, may be just the thing to celebrate these early days of spring.

Mahasti presented the recipe on WBIR this morning, but if you missed the show, now worries. We’ll be serving it at both restaurants today. Enjoy!

Tomato Head’s Carrot Orange Soup topped with Cranberry Mint Crema

For the Soup:
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
½ cup onion, diced
4 cups carrots, peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
2 -3 inch strip of orange zest
3.25 cups water
½ cup orange juice
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp light brown sugar
½ cup sour cream
½ cup heavy cream

Heat the oil in a medium sauce over medium heat. Add ginger, carrots, orange zest, water and orange juice to pan. Bring the mixture to boil, then reduce heat, and simmer 15 – 20 minutes or until carrots are soft. Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients.

If using an immersion blender – blend soup till smooth. Serve immediately topped with cranberry mint crema. If using an upright blender – allow soup to cool (see note). Blend soup in 2 batches – heat before serving.

Note: blending hot ingredients in a traditional upright blender can cause severe burns. Make sure your soup is at room temperature before blending.

For the Cranberry Mint Crema:
½ cup sour cream
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
3 Tbsp heavy cream
1/8 tsp salt

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.