Creamy Dreamy Zucchini Chowder

Jill Nussinow is a culinary educator, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, and the author of four cookbooks. Her award-winning cookbooks feature plant-based recipes and include The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, The New Fast Food, Nutrition CHAMPS and her most recent, and most loved by the public book: Vegan Under Pressure. Jill is a pressure cooking (think Instant Pot), vegetable, fermentation and mushroom expert. We’re delighted to feature her Creamy Dreamy Zucchini Chowder recipe.

Summer is when you’re looking for ways to use up your bounty, which often means zucchini and other summer squash. This screams summertime to me, with a few simple additions to add body and flavor: ground red lentils (grinding your spice grinder or the blender), almond flour (or meal), and nutritional yeast. Oh, so yummy and not too heavy for lighter summer fare. Turn it into dinner by serving with a large salad and a hunk of hearty bread.

Serves 4

4 minutes high pressure; natural release

Ingredients

2 cups finely chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups zucchini or summer

squash of any kind, cut into

2-inch chunks

¼ cup ground red lentils

¼ cup almond flour or meal

2 cups vegetable stock

¼ cup nutritional yeast

Salt and freshly ground black

pepper

¼ cup minced fresh basil, for

Garnish

Directions

1. Heat a stovetop pressure cooker over medium heat or set an electric cooker to sauté. Add the onion and dry sauté for 1 minute. Add the garlic and sauté another minute. Add the squash, lentils, almond flour, and stock.
2. Lock on the lid. Bring the cooker to high pressure. Cook for 4 minutes. Let the pressure come down naturally for at least 10 minutes. Remove the lid, carefully tilting it away from you.
3. Stir in the nutritional yeast. Using an immersion blender, blender, or food processor, blend soup until creamy.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour into bowls and serve, garnished with basil.

©2020, Jill Nussinow, MS, RDN, Reprinted with permission from Vegan Under Pressure, Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky