South Indian Zucchini Soup Recipe

This south Indian zucchini soup is inspired by my love of simple, veggie-based soups. To be completely honest, this soup is also inspired by my laziness this Sunday evening. In fact, I’m going to tell a story about it to compensate for my lack of creativity in the recipe, haha. So here’s how this went down…

I go with the family to Sangeetha every Sunday as a breakfast treat. I’m sure I’ll write a restaurant review of this place, but it’s like the south Indian version of Denny’s—great for breakfast and a beloved icon of the region. I adore many things about this restaurant, but in particular is their coconut chutney in three flavors: cilantro, tomato, and plain. I asked for some of this stuff in a to go bag after finishing my usual appam.

I could wax poetic about coconut chutney all night. When I first came to India, I would eat two packs of it as if it were hummus. I also gained a few pounds which made me think perhaps I should go easy on the stuff considering it’s basically nothing but delicious coconut, oil and spices.

Tonight, as I’m wondering what to eat for dinner, I decided to experiment with the chutney and came up with this:

Serves 1 as light snack

Ingredients:

1 raw zucchini

2 tsp tomato coconut chutney (or any of the flavors)

Pinch of salt.

Blend together and add water if necessary; season to taste.

Yes, that’s it. I told you—I’m lazy! Of course, tomato coconut chutney isn’t the easiest thing in the world to get if you’re not right down the street from somewhere selling idlis and dosas for 30 rupees (60 cents). Here’s a recipe, but I can’t vouch for it tasting the same as my beloved Sangeetha’s. And if you live outside of India, this is when I’m going to point my finger and laugh, cruelly exclaiming, “now you know how it feels to Indians when you include things like raw nut butters, leafy greens, and peaches in your vegan recipes! Bwahaha!”

This vegan Indian soup recipe makes it easy to take the best of Indian flavors and give it a healthy twist. This was one of the tastiest ways to get in my veggies, that’s for sure.

Cooking addendums:

You can add an infinite number of things to this combination, be it other vegetables or spices. Maybe add another zucchini and a clove of garlic for a punch. Or turmeric and cumin. Maybe pepper. That’s all up to you. What I do know is that blended zucchini and chutney make for a fantastic, delicious soup base. 

Sorry, you can see I already started eating it!