Love:

Each fall, Local First Utah hosts “Celebrate the Bounty” their annual fundraiser and gala event. Featuring some of Utah’s finest fare provided by locally owned, independent restaurants, artisans and food purveyors from across the state, “Celebrate the Bounty” is the party of the year. (Local First Utah)

Okay, truth be told I wrote this post last week but the night before I was going to post it Derek and Moudi of Laziz Foods called to tell me that we had just won “The People’s Choice Award” for our soup at the Local First Celebrate the Bounty (Oct 10). The hard part was keeping quiet until Local First could announce it last Friday (Oct 18). So now, read on!

I was lucky enough to be asked by my friends Moudi Sbiety and Derek Kitchen of Laziz Foods to participate in this years “Celebrate the Bounty”. Derek and Moudi asked me to come up with a soup recipe using zucchini and their very garlicy and very unique condiment Toum. Lucky for them I was just getting ready to test out a zucchini soup I had just seen in Food and Wine Magazine, I used that recipe as a template for ours.

The night before the event the three of us got together at the Laziz kitchen to make our creation. We were all very excited to be apart of this event for the first time and also a little nervous to be surrounded by all of the wonderful foodies and food artisans in the community that we look up to (maybe I’m just speaking for myself!). The feedback about our soup was overwhelming, everyone loved the flavor of the soup and the little “kick” at the end from the chilies. The night was a success. We had so much fun, we got to chat and meet with so many new people and we got to root on our fellow foodies, but the best part was we got to be apart of “Local First” big night. I have had to pinch myself a few times, I’m still taking it all in. ENJOY!

Food:

Harvest Zucchini Chile Soup w/ Goat Yogurt and Cilantro serves 8

3 medium zucchini, ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

2 medium or 1 large leek, tough green ends trimmed, pale ends chopped (make sure to rinse well)

2 poblano chilies, stems,  seeds removed and cut into 1 inch pieces

½ lb roasted hatch green chilies, charred skin, stem and seeds removed, chopped

1 T. heaping ghee or local butter

1 ½ T. Laziz Toum

4 c. veggie stock

1 Parmesan rind

Salt and pepper

1 c. Drake Family goat yogurt

1 bunch cilantro

Cilantro Oil

1 c. cilantro, mint, parsley?

1 c. olive oil

Directions:

1.       Place your favorite large soup pot on the stove over medium heat, add the ghee to the pan and begin to melt. When the ghee becomes fragrant add the leeks, poblano’s, and roasted chilies to the pan and begin to sauté. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté until the leeks become soft and caramelized 8-15 min. Take your time with this step, caramelizing the chilies and leeks will add depth of flavor.

2.       Next add the zucchini and Laziz toum, stir to combine. Continue to cook with the other veggies until zucchini is still bright green but beginning to soften. Season with a bit more salt and pepper.

3.       Add the broth and Parmesan rind to the zucchini and leek/ chili mixture and bring to a boil, turn heat to a medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered.

4.  After 30 minutes turn heat off, remove rind and in batches begin to puree soup. Adding the yogurt and cilantro to each batch to incorporate. Taste for seasoning.

5.       Soup can be served, hot or cold garnished with herb oil of choice. EAT!

Directions for herb oil:

1.       Puree herb of choice and oil together, strain through fine mesh strainer.

     Here are some photos from the night before the event, I was too busy the night of the event to get photo’s. You can find a few on Instargram @cosmohippiechef