This creamy zucchini soup recipe is a delicate puree of summer squash swirled with fresh basil, lemon zest, and aromatics like onion and garlic. No actual cream is needed, but don't forget the lemon wedges to squeeze over each bowl of soup for zingy flavor.

A bowl of zucchini soup on a blue napkin.

This beautiful zucchini soup is inspired by a recipe in the San Francisco Chronicle that my mom has been making for years. It's a song of summer, using simple vegetable staples to create a lusciously smooth soup packed with garden zucchini, spicy-sweet basil, and lemon juice for a tangy note. I serve this bright green soup hot, but it would also be a lovely chilled soup alongside little toasts drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with a bay leaf.

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Why You'll Love This Soup
Ingredients Needed
How to Make Zucchini Soup
Recipe Tips & Variations
Serving Suggestions
Storage Options
Recipe

Why You'll Love This Soup

While Alice Waters didn't create this zucchini soup recipe, it feels like a soup pulled straight from one of her cookbooks. I used vegetable stock as the base, but I'll also make it with water, a la Waters in the Art of Simple Cooking, and it's plenty flavorful. I love how vegetable soups can be beautifully creamy just from whizzing them in the blender, and you don't need to add any dairy unless you want to. A few soup highlights include:

Full of fresh flavors. Zucchini, lemon, basil - this soup has them all. Zucchini soup needs a few kitchen basics and produce staples to make but it's so much more than the sum of its parts.
Easy preparation. Like many vegetable soups, this one is relatively quick and easy to prepare. First, you'll cook down the onion and garlic, then simmer the zucchini in broth or water, then puree it. That's it!
Adaptable. While I love that this is a vegan soup, you can certainly add in some cream if you like, or try whole milk. You can also serve bowls of soup topped with a little sour cream or Greek yogurt.

Ingredients for zucchini soup are labelled: zucchini, onion, garlic, olive oil, lemon, vegetable broth, basil, salt and pepper.

Ingredients Needed

This vibrant soup relies on fresh produce for flavor, and you'll see how beautifully simple the ingredients list is below. Find the full ingredient amounts and detailed instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Olive oil - I always use extra virgin olive oil in my recipes.
Yellow onion - Yellow onion is a classic choice to use as a soup base. You could also use red onion or (well-washed) leeks.
Garlic - Zesty garlic helps create depth of flavor in the soup.
Lemon zest - I use about 1 lemon's worth of zest for this soup. Save the zested lemon to cut into wedges to squeeze over bowls of soup when serving.
Zucchini - You can substitute summer squash or even yellow squash if that's what you have in your garden.
Salt and pepper - I generously salt and pepper to taste. Serve with freshly ground pepper.
Vegetable broth - You can use vegetable broth or water to make the soup. The broth will give a bit more depth of flavor but water is perfectly fine as well!
Basil - Fresh basil is pureed into the soup and gives it such a fresh, lightly spicy flavor.
Lemon wedges - For serving. I love a bright burst of lemon squeezed over my bowl of soup.

How to Make Zucchini Soup

Here's a quick look at how you'll make this vegetable soup:

Garlic and onion are added to olive oil in a soup pot. — add onion and garlic

Garlic and onion cook down. — add onion and garlic

Cook the aromatics. Warm the olive oil and add the onion and minced garlic. Cook until the garlic is fragrant and the onions are translucent.

Zucchini is added to the garlic and onion. — add zucchini

The zucchini is cooked down a bit. — add zucchini

Add zucchini. Stir in the lemon zest and zucchini and saute for about 2 minutes, then season with salt and pepper.
Add broth. Stir in the broth and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Basil is added to the soup pot. — add basil

The zucchini soup is pureed and returned to the pot. — add basil

Add basil. Stir in the basil until wilted.
Puree. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth and season with salt and pepper.

Recipe Tips & Variations

This beautiful soup is so easy to make. Below, a few tips to help you plus a few variation ideas.

Use an immersion blender. I love leaving the soup in the pot and using an immersion blender to whiz it smooth. Be careful, because the vegetables and liquid will be hot (I prefer this method to pouring the hot soup into a blender and then back into the pot!). If you don't have an immersion blender, though, no worries, a blender or food processor will be perfect.
Don't skip the lemon. Save the lemon you zested and cut it into wedges for serving. A burst of bright lemon juice atop each bowl gives it the perfect finishing touch.
Add olive oil and cracked black pepper. Likewise, a little drizzle of olive oil and a grind of fresh black pepper across each soup bowl just before serving adds a special something that elevates the flavor of the soup even more.
Add spinach. I love adding spinach to soup for extra color, nutrition, and flavor. You can add a few cups of baby spinach to the pot when you simmer the zucchini. No need to chop it - once it's wilted, it will disappear into the soup during the pureeing process.
Use broth or water. For extra flavorful soup, use vegetable broth rather than water. But, as noted above, you can use water, and the soup will still be super flavorful. I mostly use water unless I have broth in the pantry and feel like adding it in.
Add cream or sour cream. The original recipe (linked above) calls for sour cream. I don't think the soup needs it, but you can swirl a spoonful of sour cream, heavy cream, or even Greek yogurt into each bowl of soup for creamy flavor.

Lemon wedges are shown next to a bowl of zucchini soup with a spoon in it.

Serving Suggestions

Cornbread - A warm batch of gluten free cornbread (as muffins or in a pan) is a wonderfully homey side alongside bowls of soup.
Popovers - Light as air, homemade popovers with a little salted butter are amazing with bowls of soup.
Salad - Put together a simple green salad with lots of fresh, crunchy vegetables.

Storage Options

This is a nice soup to freeze for another time because it doesn't contain any dairy, meaning that the texture of the soup will stay the same after it's defrosted (when dairy is defrosted, it can sometimes "break" and affect the soup's creaminess). Here's how to store zucchini soup:

Fridge - Transfer the cooled soup to an airtight container - I prefer a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid - and store it in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Freezer - Place cooled soup in a sealable, freezer-safe bag and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost the soup in the fridge overnight before reheating it.
To Reheat - Warm the soup over medium-low heat in a saucepan on the stove until hot. Or, using a microwave-safe bowl, reheat the soup, covered, in 1-minute increments in the microwave until heated through.

If you tried this recipe please let me know! Or if you have any recipe questions, always feel free to reach out in comments or email. I hope you love it! ❤️