Courgette & Fennel Soup
This smooth and lemony soup is made with courgette and fennel combined with chicken stock, leek, and cannellini beans to create a tasty and filling soup perfect for a weekday lunch.
The lemon brings the mild aniseed taste of the fennel and courgette together to create a pop of flavour. Chicken stock or broth is fabulously nutrient-dense, and the creamy cannellini beans add protein to this soup, helping you feel fuller for longer.
This mellow soup can be served with a sprinkling of chilli flakes if you like a spicy kick! It can easily be made vegan or vegetarian using vegetable stock or bouillon.
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Courgette & Fennel Soup
Ingredients
- 150 g Leeks
- 250 g Fennel Bulb
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 cloves Garlic (small)
- 500 ml Chicken Stock (ideally fresh or frozen stock or broth)
- 250 g Courgette
- 400 g Cannellini Beans (tinned)
- 0.5 Lemon (juice only)
Garnish
- Dried Chilli Flakes (optional)
- Fennel (fronds)
- Olive Oil
Instructions
- Slice the leeks and chop the fennel bulb into small pieces (reserve the fennel’s feathery fronds to garnish the soup later).
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the leeks and fennel, sauté until soft. Crush the garlic, add to the pan and continue to sauté for a further few minutes.
- Add the chicken stock, bring up to a simmer and bubble for 10 minutes until the leek and fennel are soft. Meanwhile finely chop the courgette and drain the cannellini beans.
- Add the chopped courgette and drained cannellini beans and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice and blitz with a hand held stick blender or in a soup blender until the mixture is smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Optional: garnish with the reserved fennel fronds, a few chilli flakes, a drizzle of olive oil, and a grind of black pepper.
Notes
- You can make your own chicken stock very easily. Follow my recipe for Chicken Bone Broth here. Otherwise buy a good quality chicken stock and try and avoid yeast extract and added sugars. Stock cubes and vegetable bouillon are less nutritious.
- To make this plant-based you can swap the chicken stock for vegetable stock.
- Store any left-over soup in the fridge for up to 48 hours.
- The soup can be frozen for up to 3 months. Decant into a freezer-proof tub once the soup is totally cold.
Per serving. Nutrition content in food is never consistent, so take these estimates with a pinch of salt! Also, our recipes tend to use low-GI carbs and sugars, so these values are not directly comparable with shop-bought UPFs.
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