Cold Cucumber and Avocado Soup

July 17, 2007 at 8:57 pm (B_minus (2.5 stars), F (0 stars, inedible), My brain, Peter Berley, Quick weeknight recipe, soup, Summer recipes, Vegetable dishes)

The food challenge ingredient on myfooddiary this week was cucumbers. I’ve eaten cucumbers before, so I had to try a new preparation. I’ve seen lots of recipes for cold cucumber soup, but have never tried making it. I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten a cold cucumber soup before. I looked for recipes on Epicurious, and found lots, but the reviews are all over the map. No recipe seemed to get consistently good reviews. Frustrated at trying to pick a recipe, I tossed them all aside and just jumped in and improvised.

I put into the food processor:
* 1 of those long skinny english cucumbers, seeded and 1/2 peeled
* 1/3 cup plain lowfat yogurt
* 1/2 avocado
* 1 whole bunch chives
* 3 pinches salt
* fresh ground black pepper

It was tasty! I liked the flavor quite a bit. Even before th avocado I liked how it tasted, but it was too thin. I couldn’t taste the yogurt at all. The texture of the final soup, however, was kind of lumpy. I not sure if the lumps were cucumber, the cucumber peel, or the chives. Also, next time I’ll use a stronger herb than chives (that’s the only fresh herb I in the fridge). I think the soup would blend up better if it was thicker~even with 1/2 an avocado it was quite thin, but I wouldn’t want to add more avocado as then it would taste more like watery guacamole. What else could be added? Maybe a boiled potato?
This made just over 2 cups.

Serving Size: 1 cup
Amount Per Serving
Calories 156
Total Fat 8.4g
Saturated Fat 1.9g
Cholesterol 2mg
Sodium 312mg
Carbohydrate 20.5g
Dietary Fiber 6.5g
Sugars 9.6g
Protein 5.7g
Vitamin A 16%
Vitamin C 45%
Calcium 13%
Iron 7%

Update July 2010:

I recently tried Peter Berley’s recipe for chilled avocado soup with lime and jalepeno, from Fresh Food Fast. Berley says that the recipe results in a “creamy, mousseline” texture. That’s pretty accurate, but I found it quite unappealing. It kind of tasted like watered down, perfectly smooth guacamole. The ingredients were basically guacamole ingredients: avocado, garlic, lime, salt, and jalepeno. The Berley has you fry some tortilla strips until they’re crunchy and golden-brown. I served the soup (with tortilla strips) to Derek and two guests at dinner, and everyone ate a small bowl and had had enough. One guest said “it’s not inedible–I’d eat it eventually if it were in my fridge.” The other guest said that the crunchy chips were essential. Berley says the recipe serves 4 but we had a lot of soup left. I think with 3 avocados it should serve at least 6 people. I don’t want to toss the rest of the soup, so I think I’m going to try mixing with with beans to make a dip.

Rating: C
Derek: C

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