Chef Thomas
A Proper Chicken Broth
Sunday's roast chicken, simmered slowly on Monday with carrots, celery, leeks, and thyme into a bowl of clear, golden broth that smells like the kitchen is paying attention.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Chilled Courgette Soup
Created by Chef Thomas
A pale, clean bowl of cold courgette soup for the nights when the garden is overproducing and the kitchen is too warm for anything that involves the oven.
Soups & Stews
British
Weeknight
Quick Meal
15 min
Active Time
20 min cook•PT35M plus chilling total
Yield4 servings
Late July. The courgette plants have crossed the line from productive to aggressive. Every morning there are three more, fat and shining, where yesterday there were none. You've griddled them, roasted them, sliced them raw into salads with lemon and parmesan. And still they come.
This soup is the answer. It takes six courgettes off your hands in fifteen minutes and turns them into something you'll actually look forward to eating. No cream. No potato. The courgettes do the thickening themselves, blending into a naturally silky, pale green bowl that tastes cool and clean and faintly grassy. A squeeze of lemon sharpens it. Good olive oil and torn basil finish it. We're only making dinner.
I make this when the kitchen is too warm for the oven and the evening is the sort where cold food feels like a kindness. It's better the next day, which means you can make it on Sunday and eat it on Monday without thinking. I wrote it down in the notebook last summer: courgettes, basil, cold bowl, back door open. That was the whole entry. It was enough.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
courgettes
Quantity
6 medium (about 800g)
roughly chopped
onion
Quantity
1 medium
sliced
garlic
Quantity
2 cloves
sliced
good olive oil
Quantity
a generous pour
vegetable or light chicken stock
Quantity
600ml
lemon
Quantity
half
juiced
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
basil leaves
Quantity
a handful
extra olive oil (optional)
Quantity
for finishing
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| courgettesroughly chopped | 6 medium (about 800g) |
| onionsliced | 1 medium |
| garlicsliced | 2 cloves |
| good olive oil | a generous pour |
| vegetable or light chicken stock | 600ml |
| lemonjuiced | half |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| basil leaves | a handful |
| extra olive oil (optional) | for finishing |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide, heavy-bottomed saucepan
- •Stick blender or countertop blender
- •Ladle
Instructions
- 1
Soften the onion and garlic
Pour a good glug of olive oil into a wide, heavy pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic with a pinch of salt. Let them soften for five minutes or so, stirring now and then, until they're translucent and sweet-smelling. No colour. You're not building a fond here, you're coaxing out gentleness.
- 2
Cook the courgettes
Add the chopped courgettes and stir them through the oil. Let them cook for about eight to ten minutes, until they've gone soft and slightly collapsed, giving up their water. They'll lose their raw, grassy edge and start to smell green and mild, almost like a warm garden. Don't let them brown. You want the colour of this soup to stay pale and clean.
Use medium courgettes, not the marrows that got away from you. Smaller ones have more flavour and less of the watery, cottony centre that dilutes everything. - 3
Add stock and simmer
Pour in the stock. It should just cover the vegetables. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for ten minutes with the lid off. The courgettes will be completely tender, almost falling apart. That's what you want. They're going to do all the work of thickening this soup without any cream or potato.
- 4
Blend until silky
Take the pan off the heat. Tear in most of the basil, keeping a few small leaves back for later. Blend until completely smooth. A stick blender is fine, but a proper countertop blender will give you a silkier finish if you care about that sort of thing. The texture should be like cold cream when it's done: smooth, light, with just enough body to coat the back of a spoon. Add the lemon juice and season well. More salt than you think. Cold food dulls flavour, so season it a touch more than feels right while it's warm.
Cold mutes everything. Season this soup assertively while it's warm. When you taste it cold from the fridge, you'll be glad you did. - 5
Chill and serve
Let the soup cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for at least two hours, or until properly cold. Taste it again once it's chilled and adjust the salt and lemon. Ladle into cold bowls. Tear the remaining basil over the top, add a thread of your best olive oil, and a grind of black pepper. That's it. Right food, right evening.
Chef Tips
- •Use courgettes that are firm and no bigger than your forearm. The monsters that hide under the leaves and swell to the size of a small dog have their uses, but this isn't one of them. You want flavour and density, not water.
- •The olive oil you finish with matters more here than the oil you cook with. This soup is cold, clean, and simple, so whatever you drizzle on top is going to be tasted clearly. Use the good bottle. The one you keep at the back of the shelf.
- •If you have a glut of basil as well as courgettes, blend a big handful into the soup before chilling. The colour goes from pale jade to a vivid green that looks like something from a smarter kitchen than mine. It tastes better too.
- •This keeps well in the fridge for three days and improves overnight as the flavours settle and deepen. Make more than you need. You'll want it for lunch.
Advance Preparation
- •Must be chilled for at least two hours before serving. Overnight is better.
- •Keeps in the fridge for up to three days, covered. The flavour deepens as it sits.
- •Can be frozen for up to two months. Defrost in the fridge overnight and stir well before serving, adjusting the seasoning and adding fresh basil and olive oil.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 375g)
Calories
160 calories
Total Fat
12 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
670 mg
Total Carbohydrates
12 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
7 g
Protein
4 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from British Soups
Browse the full collection
Chef Thomas
Beef and Ale Stew
Braising steak surrendered to dark ale and slow time, with onions and mushrooms, until the gravy turns thick and malty and the kitchen smells like the kind of evening you want to stay in for.
Chef Thomas
Beef and Barley Broth
Beef shin and pearl barley simmered low and slow with root vegetables until the meat gives way and the broth thickens into something between a soup and a stew, the kind of bowl that steadies you on a cold night.
Chef Thomas
Beef Olives
Thin slices of beef rolled around a stuffing of sausage meat and herbs, browned in butter, and braised for two patient hours until the meat yields and the gravy turns dark and rich and worth mopping up with bread.