Chilled Cucumber Soup
- 5 medium cucumbers (approximately 1 1/2 lb total), peeled, seeded if necessary, and cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 1 teaspoon teaspoon rice wine vinegar, or more to taste
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 medium ripe avocado
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh garlic chives (or scallion)
- freshly squeezed ginger juice to taste
- sea salt to taste
- diced avocado and chopped chives for garnish (optional)
- Place sliced cucumber in a large bowl. Toss with sea salt, rice wine vinegar and honey; allow to marinate for at least one hour, or up to three. The salt should draw out a lot of the cucumbers' liquid, which will aid with pureeing (alternatively, you could have a shorter marinating time and use more water for blending, but I expect this will dilute the flavor).
- If you have a porcelain ginger grater, great - if not, a Microplane works just fine. Hold grater over a small square of double-layered cheesecloth. Grate a piece of ginger (there is no need to peel!) onto cheesecloth until you have about 1 heaping tablespoon. Over a small bowl, pull the four corners of the cheesecloth around the grated ginger and twist to release the juice.
- Peel and pit the avocado and add to a blender along with the cucumber mixture (and all of the liquid that's been released), the chopped chives, and the ginger juice (start with a teaspoon and then add more later to suit your taste). Add a generous pinch of sea salt. Puree until very smooth, about 2 minutes, adding filtered water to facilitate blending until desired consistency is achieved (not as thick as baby food, but more viscous than juice). Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
- Optional - I like to pass every soup I make through a chinois (a conically-shaped fine-meshed strainer). Straining soups makes them silky-smooth and helps remove air bubbles caused by blending. However, it is absolutely not necessary to do so.
- Chill until ready to serve. Divide soup amongst chilled bowls, garnish with three pieces of diced avocado and a sprinkling of finely chopped chives.
cucumbers, rice wine vinegar, honey, avocado, fresh garlic, freshly squeezed ginger juice, salt, avocado
Taken from food52.com/recipes/4896-chilled-cucumber-soup (may not work)