Perfect weather for cucumber soup
26.07.11 - kitchen classics blender
There were days this past week when it was too hot to think about food, much less cook it. I longed to lie around in water, and eat and drink cold stuff. This is the weather that cucumber soup was invented for.
I base my version on the old 1977 vegetarian Moosewood Cookbook recipe made with water and yogurt. Cucumber soup never entered my vocabulary until the 1970s when cold soup generally was a stranger to me, not being sophisticated enough to have encountered Vichyssoise.
I think the first cold soup I ever tasted was a chilled cherry soup. Not long after, I met up with gazpacho, the tomato juice based soup with peppers, cucumber, carrots, and scallions. Some versions of cucumber soup require cooking the cukes, then mashing and chilling them but my version requires nothing more strenuous than putting in time with a blender or food processor.
I used a long European-style cucumber that I bought. Normally I’d use my own homegrown cukes, either the one called Suyo Long or a small pile of pickling cucumbers but this year the hot weather arrived before the cucumbers did. Whatever you choose, round up to the nearest whole vegetable; it’s too hot to lift a measuring cup.
More about kitchen classics blender on: Bangor Daily News