Monday's lunch: Chilled Cucumber Soup

Cool Cucumber Soup

I didn't use up the cucumbers from last week's haul and received quite a few in this week's CSA.  So, on Saturday, I decided to attempt to make cold cucumber soup. I think the HOT temps have me on a cold soup kick--lots of gazpacho was enjoyed last week and I tried my hand at this new chilled soup.

I was inspired by one of the recipes in "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." Remember, I don't really follow recipes, instead, I taste the flavor along the way  Here's how I created this dish...

Ingredients:

• 5 or 6 cucumbers, seeded and diced
• red onion
• garlic
• mint
• dill
• plain yogurt (I really enjoy Siggi's plain yogurt)
• olive oil
• avocado (ok, ok...not local at all)
• small amount of water

I kept the Cuisinart on the counter and attached the chopping blade.  I added the first five ingredients and pulsed regularly until they were liquefied. I added the Siggi's and turned on the processor until it was fully mixed.  I then added a few glugs of olive oil on 2 or 3 occasions.

At this point, I took half of mixture (about 2 cups worth) and pushed it through a fine mesh strainer.  I tossed the veggie mash that was leftover in the strainer.  Now that I had more room in the Cuisinart, I added the avocado (I chopped it up first).  Also, I thought the consistency of the soup was getting too hummus-like, so I added a few splashes of water as the Cuisinart was mixing. 

I added the contents of the food processor to the strained soup and whisked it together. I let that chill in the refrigerator overnight before tasting.  At lunch today, I added toasted almond slivers, some diced onions and cucumbers and topped the cold soup with feta cheese.  It was decent, but I wasn't as happy with the results.

I think the dish could be made a little bit better with some heat--like jalapeno heat or some Cholula Chili Lime sauce.  I still have quite a bit cucumber soup left, so I'm going to experiment. This is the fun part of cooking...adjusting your seasonings to make it "just right."