Pear and Zucchini Soup with Chorizo Bits

Last week when I was struggling in the kitchen to make tasty food without killing myself, Leel suggested and inspired me to try the Food Network’s Pear and Zucchini Soup. Ah soup, how I love thee. My husband is allergic to pears but he is away so this was another way to be rebellious in the kitchen.

You know I just had to change up the recipe a bit, right? I divided the recipe in half which is a good thing, even at half this makes a ton of soup! I have been living off it all weekend. You start off with the classic soup-making technique. I heated up some olive oil and butter and then added 1 diced carrot, celery stalk and small onion and sauteed them for 10 minutes.

While the soup was simmering away I fried up little pieces of chorizo sausage to use as garnish instead of the croutons. I wanted a little protein in the meal.

I love this picture, my blender looks like it is impersonating a ghost! I do not like using immersion blenders, they do not make the soup perfectly smooth the way a blender does. I removed thyme stalks and bay leaf and a little at a time I ladled the soup into the blender and pureed it with a cloth on top. This is important! I have ended up with soup all over my kitchen because I forgot to do this, make sure to cover and not over-fill the blender. Add soup gradually. I put the soup back into the pot, added 2 tbsp of cream and checked the seasoning.