Summer Squash and Zucchini Soup With Basil for Full GAPS

This summer squash soup combines yellow squash and zucchini with homemade meat stock, onion, garlic, and basil. The vegetables cook until very soft, giving you a gentle, savory bowl with a little sweetness from the squash. Stir homemade ghee into the bowls as you serve them.

You can leave the vegetables in soft pieces or blend the cooked soup smooth. There is no milk, cream, flour, or starch thickener in the base. The smooth texture comes from the vegetables themselves, while the ghee adds richness at the table.

My older kids can cook and follow directions, and clear instructions matter when someone else is helping with a meal. For this soup, “very soft” is a useful instruction only if you know what to look for. The squash should give way easily under a spoon, and a piece lifted from the pot should no longer have a firm raw center. That is the check to make before deciding whether to blend it.

What Goes Into The Pot

• 8–10 cups homemade chicken meat stock
• 4–6 cups yellow summer squash, chopped
• 4–6 cups zucchini, chopped
• 1 white onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, diced
• 4–6 large basil leaves, chopped
• 2–4 tablespoons homemade ghee, for serving
• Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

The ranges give you a flexible pot of soup rather than one fixed vegetable-to-liquid ratio. Measure the squash after chopping. Four cups of each squash with ten cups of stock will be brothier than six cups of each with eight cups of stock. Choose within those ranges according to the texture you want, and keep track of the amounts if you want to repeat the same balance next time.

Yellow summer squash and zucchini are both tender summer vegetables. They cook differently from a dense winter squash such as butternut. You do not need to roast them first, and roasting would change the simple stock-simmered flavor of this soup. Cut the pieces to a similar size so the pot softens evenly.

Chicken meat stock gives a mild base. Homemade beef meat stock also works in the same eight-to-ten-cup range if that is what you have ready. Its beef flavor will be more noticeable against the mild squash. Use a finished batch of meat stock, not a stock cube or a commercial broth concentrate.

The basil goes into the cooking pot with the vegetables. Its leaves soften into the soup, so this is not a fresh basil garnish scattered over the bowls. Use four to six large leaves, chop them, and let them cook with the onion and garlic.

Keep the ghee for serving instead of putting it in at the beginning. The two to four tablespoons listed are enough for two to four bowls at one tablespoon each. That is a serving addition, not a claim that this large pot makes only four portions. If you are saving some of the soup, keep that base separate and finish the bowls you are eating.

Simmer Until The Squash Is Very Soft

1. Prepare the vegetables. Chop and measure the yellow squash and zucchini. Dice the white onion and garlic, and chop the basil leaves. Have the finished meat stock ready.
2. Fill the stockpot. Put the meat stock, both squashes, onion, garlic, and basil into a large stainless steel stockpot. Add sea salt and black pepper to taste. Leave the ghee out for now.
3. Simmer. Heat the pot until the liquid simmers, then adjust the heat to keep a steady simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are very soft. Check a thicker piece of squash and some onion before taking the pot off the heat.
4. Choose the texture. Leave the vegetables in soft pieces, or let the soup cool before blending it smooth in batches in the Ninja BN801. Do not blend hot soup in that machine, and keep each batch below its MAX LIQUID line. Return blended soup to the pot and warm it gently.
5. Finish the bowls. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Ladle warm soup into bowls and stir one tablespoon of homemade ghee into each bowl you are serving, using the two-to-four-tablespoon serving quantity.

In Step 3, look for small bubbles rising steadily through the stock. A hard rolling boil is not needed. Stir from the bottom so the pieces move around the pot, especially as they soften. The onion should lose its firm bite, and the squash should crush easily when pressed with a spoon. If the thickest pieces are still firm, keep cooking until they reach that soft texture.

The unblended soup will have visible squash pieces and little flecks of cooked basil. For a smooth soup, blend some of the liquid with the vegetables in each batch so the mixture can move through the pitcher. Blend until there are no large pieces left, then combine the batches in the pot. Blending does not replace the cooking step: firm vegetables will not give you the same soft texture.

I use the Ninja BN801 for blender work. It needs cooled ingredients, so allow extra cooling and reheating time when you choose the smooth version. The 45 minutes above is the vegetable simmer, not a promise that chopping, heating, cooling, and blending all fit into that time.

At Step 5, the ghee should melt into the warm soup as you stir. Small golden droplets can remain on the surface. Ghee firms as it cools, so serve this version warm and give each bowl a stir before eating.

Full GAPS And The Earlier Intro Preparation

This recipe uses homemade meat stock for its GAPS base. Dr. Natasha’s 2020 book recommends meat stock rather than bone broth for at least the first year on GAPS, and for some people several years. Bone broth is not the starting stock for Intro. Follow the linked chicken or beef meat stock recipe for the liquid used here.

As written with black pepper, this is a Full GAPS soup. It is egg-free and nut-free. Ghee is made from butter, so it remains a milk-derived ingredient even though this soup has no added milk or cream. It does not fit No-Plant GAPS because the squash, onion, garlic, and basil are part of the bowl.

For the earlier Intro preparation, peel and deseed the squash before chopping and measuring it, and leave out the ground black pepper. Cook the vegetables until fully soft. Follow the Intro soup method by adding the garlic after the vegetables soften, bringing the pot back to a boil, and turning off the heat. Serve warm.

The ghee addition belongs after ghee has been introduced in Stage 2. Its tablespoon-per-bowl serving amount is not the amount to begin a new ghee introduction with. The Stage 2 guide explains that progression. For Stage 1, use the Stage 1 soup and meat-stock preparation without carrying over this ghee finish.

Serving And Saving The Soup

This makes one large pot. The final volume depends on your choices within the stock and vegetable ranges, so there is no fixed serving count. Ladle the amount you want into a bowl, then add its ghee separately. Keep the remaining soup base plain if you plan to serve it at another meal.

To make it a meat-and-vegetable meal, add already-cooked chicken or beef at the end and heat it through. The soft meat saved from making the linked meat stock is useful here. Do not add raw meat at serving time; the vegetable simmer is already finished at that point.

Refrigerate the soup in covered containers and warm the portion you need in a saucepan. Stir the smooth version as it heats so the bottom does not catch. If you have finished a bowl with ghee already, that fat will firm when chilled and melt again as the soup warms.

If you want another mild yellow squash soup, yellow squash and pea soup uses peas and a different vegetable balance. For a stronger ginger flavor, zucchini ginger bisque is a separate recipe with its own stock-to-zucchini amounts. Those are useful choices when you want a different bowl, rather than adding extra ingredients to this pot.

Recommended Equipment

Use a large stainless steel stockpot with room for eight to ten cups of stock and eight to twelve cups of chopped squash before the vegetables soften. The Le Creuset Classic Stainless Steel 10-quart Stockpot gives this batch plenty of room. Leave enough space to stir without splashing over the rim.

A board, knife, measuring cups, spoon, and ladle handle the unblended version. The Ninja BN801 is optional for the smooth texture. Its pitcher is much smaller than this pot of soup, so work in batches rather than trying to blend the whole pot at once.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I Use Yellow Squash Or Zucchini?

Use both: four to six cups of yellow summer squash and four to six cups of zucchini. The ranges apply to each vegetable separately.

Does It Need Cream To Be Smooth?

No. Fully softened vegetables and their stock blend into a smooth soup. Leave them in pieces if you prefer a brothier bowl with visible vegetables.

When Does The Ghee Go In?

At serving, not at the beginning of the simmer. Stir a tablespoon into each warm bowl you are serving. The listed two to four tablespoons finish two to four bowls, while the rest of the soup base can be saved.

Can I Use Beef Meat Stock?

Yes, in the same eight-to-ten-cup range. Use the beef meat stock recipe linked above. It gives a more noticeable meat flavor than chicken stock.

Can I Double It?

Use the doubled ranges in the card and enough pot space for the vegetables and liquid. Divide between pots if needed. Cook to the same very-soft endpoint rather than automatically doubling the 45-minute simmer.

Soup Ideas To Keep In Your Kitchen

The planned Soups & Stews Cookbook and Soup & Stew Recipe Card Deck will give you more ways to turn homemade meat stock into a meal. Watch the WFLI shop for their release if having the ingredients and steps together makes dinner easier to plan.

Summer Squash And Zucchini Soup Recipe