Sliced cucumbers. The G-rated shot
When the whole Anthony Wiener scandal broke, my first thought was that I could use a really funny and tasteless photo for a blog post on this chilled cucumber soup I wanted to try.
You can just imagine. If you can’t, you’ve obviously never had a man send you a dirty text pic. (or been on former Rep. Weiner’s Twitter list…)
But I punked out. I must be getting more conservative in middle age.
I went with this appropriate shot instead. See? Lovely cucumbers peeled and sliced, ready to be seeded and chopped before going into the blender for chilled cucumber soup.
The soup itself couldn’t be easier, as evidenced by the fact that I did it right the very first time.
I used this basic recipe from Jeanne Kelley, who is an L.A.-based food writer, stylist, photographer and cookbook author who lives the sort of sophisticated urban farm lifestyle I can only dream of.
Her recipe for chilled cucumber soup is here on Squid Ink.
Here’s how I made it:
Five smallish cucumbers, peeled (note to self: buy a new peeler, would you? Jeez.)
1 green onion, sliced
a whole garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 cups whole fat organic yogurt (the classic recipe calls for buttermilk. But…ewwww._)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Peel and seed the cucumbers and slice them in half. Chop these into chunks. Throw them into a blender, along with the onion, garlic, salt and yogurt. Puree until desired consistency.
Will cool you down
Chill for a few hours or overnight.When ready to eat, ladle this into pretty bowls (stir it to re-blend first) and garnish with mint leaves or toasted cumin seeds for that lovely Middle Eastern flavor.
This would be good with toasted pita bread triangles and M’Jedrah, which is a Lebanese rice and lentil dish with caramelized onions.
Actually, with the yogurt consistency, this might be really good sauced over grilled salmon.
I’m eating this now. Drinking it out of a bowl. Nom! It’s like a pale green gazpacho. Very refreshing.
Thusly refreshed, I could show you that tasteless photo. But alas, although I can now make chilled cucumber soup, I don’t have the tech chops to take you to the photo somewhere off this site.
Sorry gang. Enjoy the soup!
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