Cucumber and Avocado Soup (and how green soup makes me feel super healthy)

I get a CSA every summer. And I love it. I get boxes of farm fresh just picked this morning veggies every week. Veggies and fruits that ripen on a plant and not in a warehouse. Super awesome deal.

But my husband travels for work all summer and I am a lazy cook when cooking for just myself (and a toddler who sometimes seems to survive on air and frozen peas.) Lots of the time these wonderful farm fresh veggies begin to fill up my fridge to the point where they are taking over. When I am dodging stray ears of corn when I open the door, I typically start googling for what I can make that will use up a lot of veggies and freeze well (until my husband gets home with his very large and uncomplaining appetite!) and this time it was soup to the rescue.

This time I decided to try cucumber soup. I found an awesome recipe from Eating Well (which you can check out here.) Having only ever really eaten cucumbers raw as snacks or in salads, I was a little hesitant to cook them (what if something weird happens when you cook them? If they were good cooked wouldn't more recipes called for sauteed cucumber? I mean how often do you ever see that?)

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the only bizarre thing that happens when you cook cumbers into soup is that they are delishous. This soup was amazing -- I may actually buy extra cucumbers from my CSA this week so I can make more of this soup.

So here is what I did ---

What you will need:

1 TBS extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 TBS white vinegar (the recipe originally called for lemon juice which I didn't have)
4 cups peeled, seeded and sliced cucumbers
32 oz vegetable broth
1 1/2 avocados, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste*

The original recipe called for everything minced or diced. Since I knew the soup was going to be pureed, I just roughly chopped everything. (I told you I was lazy...)

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add garlic and onion and cook until tender, stirring occasionally.

Add vinegar and cook for 1 minute.

Add the cucumber, broth and avocado and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook until the cucumbers are soft (between 5-10 minutes)

Transfer the soup to a blender or use an immersion blender to puree the soup. Salt and pepper to taste.

*The original recipe also called for a dash of cayenne pepper. Since I don't do spicy I always omit this kind of thing. But for those of you who love the heat, it might be a nice option.


It was delicious (even if the color is a little strange.) Not what I expected at all but really good. I actually packed it up for lunch the next day since the recipe said it could be served chilled. But it wasn't great. Room temperature or warmish was the way to go with this one! (With some yummy bread of course!)