Zucchini and Summer Squash

I never bother making a soup out of just zucchini or summer squash because the flavor isn’t assertive enough to give a soup a distinctive character. On the other hand, they’re wonderful in combination with other vegetables such as tomatoes, garlic, and beans.

In most recipes zucchini and summer squash are sliced and added to other vegetables along with the liquid. When they’re used this way of course they add body to the soup, but they don’t add much flavor. Nor do zucchini and summer squash benefit from a gentle cooking in fat the way onions and garlic do—they just turn mushy, especially when stirred too much.