The man in the little Turkish shop got excited when I bought a tin of coconut milk and a fennel. "Oh, are you making fennel soup?" "...No?" But then he persuaded me, telling me how he used coconut milk to make it creamy and rich.
What I love is that the "grassy" fennel flavours actually balance against the coconut milk well, so the end result is rich but makes perfect sense. I emphasise the fennel-ness with the other herbal flavours of dill seed and lemon zest.
Serves 2, takes 30 minutes.
Rinse the fennel. If your fennel has dill-like sprigs of "hair" on, cut them off and save them to use as garnish at the end.
In a large pan with a lid, melt the butter over a medium heat, while you slice the fennel fairly finely. Start the fennel frying, adding the dill seed too, and let it fry (with stirring) until it only-just starts to take a bit of golden colour (not too much!).
Meanwhile boil a kettle, then add about 400ml of boiling water to the fennel to cover it. Add about 1/2 a teaspoon of salt too. Bring it to the boil, and let it bubble modestly for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop the courgette, and zest the lemon. When the fennel is nicely softened, add the courgette and give that just a couple of minutes to soften. Add the parsley. Then take the pan off the heat and, using a blender, whizz it all to a nice smooth consistency. It's up to you whether you blitz it to uniformity or you leave some different-coloured bits in it.
Return the soup to the pan if you took it out. Add the coconut milk - maybe not all of it, hold some back for now and maybe add the rest according to taste. Add the lemon zest, add salt and pepper. Stir it and check the seasoning.
Serve in bowls, with the garnish on top if you have it, with bread on the side.