Healthy and refreshing, but oh so satisfying, our fresh and zesty Chilled Cucumber & Avocado Soup is what you want to eat when the weather turns hot. It puts the ahhhh in spa food.
SCENE 1. INTERIOR. DAY. It’s brutally hot outside. Matt and Emily (plus a dog, two cats and five chickens) are sprawled all over the living room, fanning themselves.
MATT: It’ll be July 4th soon! We should make something appropriately red, white, and blue, like you Americans (sniff)… enjoy.
EMILY: First, (waving citizenship papers) that’s *we* Americans, buddy, and second, what do we have in the pantry that’s red and blue?
MATT: I WILL FIND OUT. (Matt disappears into the pantry for several hours. Cue special effect of the hands of a wall clock spinning forward. Eventually he re-appears with a can of tomatoes and a ball of blue string.)
EMILY: (Long, long pause). What other colors do we have?
MATT: (Chews on the ball of blue string, thoughtfully, and looks out of window at the deck, where a Triffid-like mass of herbs threatens to destroy the house.) Green. Lots and lots of green.
EMILY: THAT GIVES ME AN IDEA. (Grabs sunglasses and a large pair of scissors, heads outside.) Get ready to be…(lowers sunglasses enough to peer over them)…REFRESHED.
Other than the color, the main driving factor behind this soup is that we wanted it to be cold. Not just served chilled, but also requiring no cooking, baking, or stove use of any kind. When it’s in the 80s and humid, we just don’t want to touch the oven at all if we can help it.
Our herbs are growing like crazy, and hopefully later in the summer we’ll be able to make salads with kale, zucchini and tomatoes all from the garden. For now, this is a good way to get into the season – admittedly, we only grew the herbs ourselves, but that doesn’t make it any the less tasty.
- We used a combination of basil, cilantro/coriander and mint – feel free to leave out the cilantro if you don’t care for it, but we like how it works in combination with the avocado.
- If you can’t find English cucumbers, use regular ones but definitely peel the waxy skin off
- Haas avocados are the small dark, bumpy ones.
- For a vegan version, just leave the yogurt out (you can add a little coconut milk if you like but the avocado makes it plenty creamy).
- For a spicier version, add 1 seeded jalapeño pepper.
Chilled Cucumber & Avocado Soup
Ingredients
- 2 large english cucumber peeled
- 2 small ripe Haas avocados peeled
- 2 scallion white and green parts, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh herbs coarsely chopped (cilantro, basil, mint)
- 2 cups broth chicken or vegetable
- 1 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream optional
- 2 teaspoons lime zest
- 4 tablespoons lime juice
- Kosher salt to taste, approx. 1/4 -1/2 teaspoon
- Fresh pepper to taste, approx. 1/4 teaspoon
- 3-4 cherry tomatoes optional, for garnish
- Extra virgin olive oil optional, for garnish
Instructions
- Cut the peeled cucumber in half length-wise. Using a spoon, scoop out and discard the seeds. Cut the cucumber into roughly 1 inch chunks. Peel and pit the avocado. Cut flesh into 1 inch chunks.
- In a food processor or blender, add the cucumber, avocado, cilantro and scallion. Pulse until the mixture is roughly chopped.
- Add the broth, yogurt and lime zest and juice and continue to purée until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste and chill for 4 to 6 hours.
- If using, quarter tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil. Add to soup before serving, as garnish.
Beautiful and yummy! I made a similar cold soup with asparagus, garnished with cilantro oil, yogurt and toasted slivered almonds. Long live cold green soups!
Oooo, yummy. I was thinking about toasted almonds but I got too hungry and forgot. I’m going to try them next time.
I feel cooler just reading the recipe! Do you really bring the chickens in the house when the temp goes into the 80’s?
No, not really. They have plenty of shady spots to lounge in. They poop WAY too much to hang out inside.
Yummy. So summery!
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