This is a delicious, creamy, and luscious soup without the cream! Hard to believe I know, but true. It is a healthy and guilt free indulgence. The Cilantro Splash is absolutely essential to the success of this soup. Make sure a bit of the green stuff is on every spoonful you eat. It really sends the soup over the soup.

Yellow Squash Soup with Cilantro Splash

Serves 8 – 10

Soup

• 3 ½ tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 2 pounds yellow summer squash, trimmed, quartered lengthwise and cut into ½ inch pieces
• 2 cups fresh or frozen corn
• 1 28-oz can diced Italian tomatoes, drained, rinsed of excess puree
• 6 cups salted chicken stock

NOTE on Salted Chicken Broth: Most recipes call for unsalted chicken broth, but if you use salted chicken broth in this soup, and use the one teaspoon salt recommended when sautéing the onions, the soup should be perfectly seasoned.

Cilantro Splash

• 1 cup fresh cilantro (about ½ bunch – a little more won’t hurt a thing, especially if you like cilantro, and including the stems is OK)
• 1 small clove garlic, chopped
• ½ cup olive or canola oil
• ½ cup buttermilk

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

For the soup:

Heat oil over medium-low heat in a Dutch oven or large soup pot. Place onions in the hot oil, sprinkling with the salt and cooking the onions until they are softened.  Stir in squash, corn, tomatoes and the stock. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer covered 20 – 30 minutes, or until squash is tender. Puree soup in batches in a blender or in the Dutch oven with an immersion blender.  Chill till cold.  If needed, season with additional kosher salt and pepper.

NOTE: When you puree the soup, you need to divide it into batches. DO NOT fill the container more than half full. Put a towel on top of the lid and hold down firmly. Start on the very lowest setting and gradually increase the speed to the highest point and let the soup blend and puree till it reaches a creamy consistency. Place that batch in a large clean bowl and continue pureeing with the remaining soup.

So Important: When pureeing hot soup it creates pure havoc if you are not careful. The lid can blow off the blender container, you are scalded and your cabinets and the ceiling will have lovely yellow splotches all over the place.

For the Cilantro Splash:

Puree first 4 ingredients. Season with salt.  Chill.  May be made one day ahead.

NOTE: If you only make half the recipe, puréeing the cilantro mixture is easiest using an immersion blender in a narrow bottom measuring cup.

To serve:

Pour approximately 1 -1 ½ cups cold soup into an individual soup bowl. Drizzle about 1-1/2 tablespoons cilantro mixture onto center of soup in a spiral design (it doesn’t have to be perfect).  Using a thin skewer or toothpick place one end in the middle of the cilantro that you drizzled on the soup and let your inner artist take hold by drawing the toothpick through the cilantro into the soup, swirling your heart out as you go.

Too much soup? The ingredients can be cut in half if you don’t believe in leftovers. The soup keeps several days in the refrigerator.  However, if serving the soup on several different days, I would make a new batch of the Cilantro Splash each time you serve it.

Drizzle Spoon

I love mine. Amazon has a huge selection.