The soup is adapted from a recipe I found on Epicurious, linked here. I say adapted, as after reading all of the reviews on the site, I added a little more "oomph" to the soup itself in the form of some red onion. Also, I didn't want to spend $4 on organic chives when I had green onions in the fridge already. Close enough, I say (at least for this particular recipe). Since I don't reprint Epicurious recipes (as per their User Agreement), you can follow along on their site while I do my stuff here. It's all about teamwork, see??

First off, I didn't get the prescribed english cucumbers called for in the recipe. There aren't any around currently that are organic, and because I'm a quasi-yuppie that shops at the local Co-Op (mostly out of convenience and the belief that in-season organic fruits and veggies taste better than the chain-supermarket alternatives), I didn't go to the proper grocery store to get them. So, (write this down!) I got 4 regular cukes instead. I know they used the english versions to cut down on seeding and all that, but really? Seeding cucumbers is easy. However, before I did anything else, I cut the cukes in half, and doused with a crapton of kosher salt to remove some of the water. I let those sit in a bowl in my fridge for about an hour before I went along with the rest of the recipe.

Once the cukes were done, I rinsed off the salt, seeded them with a spoon, and tossed them in the blender (I added the vinegar here, but not the extra salt). Huh? Didn't I peel them? Hells no. It's going to be puréed anyhow. What's the point? Plus, I think it has better color that way. And I'm lazy. However, the blender method proved futile. I didn't chop up the cucumbers before I put them in there, and didn't feel like taking them out to do it, so I sloughed the whole bit into the trusty Cuisinart and hit the on button. BAM! Cucumber soup!

Take a look at that, why don't you? Beeeeuuuutiful!

I did the soup in 2 batches. Once I tasted the first batch, and had the same complaint that someone else had on the (Epicurious) site that there was v. little flavor. So, in the second batch, I tossed in some S&P, plus half a small red onion. I may have added some garlic powder, too. Once that was all soupified and mixed in with the first batch, it tasted yummy. Like I could eat it without the Wasabi-Avocado Cream. Of course, I still made that part, so I put the soup into the fridge until I was ready to serve it.

For the Wasabi-Avocado cream, I used green onions instead of chives. I think I used only one green onion, but it was a big one. I mashed up the avocado, green onions, lime juice, yogurt, and wasabi together with a fork.

I tasted the cream, and sure enough, like the soup, I could have eaten it just by itself. But I didn't. Except for maybe a couple of spoonfuls. But I'm not really going to admit to that.

Just before serving, I tossed the soup back into the Cuisinart and added the 4 ice cubes I had on hand. After whirring that about for a while, I couldn't tell any difference in coldness at all, so it probably wasn't even necessary. I served up the soup like this, instead of in the tiny little bowls shown on Epicurious, since this was pretty much our dinner.

The husband wasn't really into it, but I loved-loved it. The leftovers I ate the next day, and then again at home on Saturday. I thought it was really damned good, so whatever on my husband. He's not all that into "funny" recipes like this, though. Anyhow, enjoy! The soup nice and cool for a hot hot summer day.