Avocado-Cucumber Soup

Name: Avocado-Cucumber Soup
Yield: makes 8 (1-cup) servings
Ingredients: 4 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, and lightly mashed (about 3 cups); 3 cucumbers, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 4 cups); 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped; 4 cups buttermilk; 2/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt; 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 1/2 lemons, optional); 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce; 1 tablespoon kosher salt; 1/2 cup coarsely chopped red onion; 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped

December 14, 2011

This cold soup is yet another use for the exploding basil in my garden. I created it for a backyard party that Country Living photographed for a summertime issue. There’s something special and a little bit elegant about starting an alfresco party meal with soup. Texas summers are so hot that I always like to offer something refreshing right off the bat. The gorgeous green color of this soup is set off beautifully by stark white serving bowls.

Recipe information

Yield
makes 8 (1-cup) servings

Ingredients

4 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, and lightly mashed (about 3 cups)

3 cucumbers, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)

2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

4 cups buttermilk

2/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 1/2 lemons, optional)

1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 cup coarsely chopped red onion

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped

Preparation

Step 1
Combine the avocados, cucumbers, and garlic in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process until smooth. Add the buttermilk, sour cream, lemon juice if you like, Tabasco, and salt. Pulse until incorporated. Add the red onion and basil and pulse 3 to 4 times, so that the onion and basil are evenly mixed in but still visible. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Serve chilled.
do it early
Step 2
Beyond the initial 4 hours that the soup must sit, refrigerated, before serving, it can be made up to 24 hours in advance. If it gets too thick, thin it with buttermilk.
tip
Step 3
If you’d like to shave some fat from this recipe, don’t mess with my beloved avocados, which are packed with good-for-you monounsaturated fat. Substitute low-fat versions of the sour cream or yogurt instead. Your taste buds won’t miss a thing.

Pastry Queen Parties by Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Copyright © 2009 Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Published by Ten Speed Press. All Rights Reserved. A pastry chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author, native Texan Rebecca Rather has been proprietor of the Rather Sweet Bakery and Café since 1999. Open for breakfast and lunch daily, Rather Sweet has a fiercely loyal cadre of regulars who populate the café’s sunlit tables each day. In 2007, Rebecca opened her eponymous restaurant, serving dinner nightly, just a few blocks from the café. Rebecca is the author of THE PASTRY QUEEN, and has been featured in Texas Monthly, Gourmet, Ladies Home Journal, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Chocolatier, Saveur, and O, The Oprah Magazine. When she isn’t in the bakery or on horseback, Rebecca enjoys the sweet life in Fredericksburg, where she tends to her beloved backyard garden and menagerie, and eagerly awaits visits from her college-age daughter, Frances. Alison Oresman has worked as a journalist for more than twenty years. She has written and edited for newspapers in Wyoming, Florida, and Washington State. As an entertainment editor for the Miami Herald, she oversaw the paper’s restaurant coverage and wrote a weekly column as a restaurant critic. After settling in Washington State, she also covered restaurants in the greater Seattle area as a critic with a weekly column. A dedicated home baker, Alison is often in the kitchen when she isn't writing. Alison lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her husband, Warren, and their children, Danny and Callie.

Recipe information

Ingredients

Preparation

Step 1

do it early

Step 2

tip

Step 3

Recipe notes