Friday Recipe: Chilled Cucumber Soup

I don't think I've posted a recipe on here in a couple years which is kind of crazy given how much I cook. As someone who tries to eat healthy and keep the food bill from getting too out of hand, I end up bringing breakfast and lunch to work pretty much every day. My wife and I also try to eat in for dinner most weeknights too, though sometimes at least once a week we do give into cravings for Chinese, Middle Eastern, or Mexican takeout.

Given our schedules, it makes sense to cook large dishes that we can eat several nights in a row. For example, if I know I've got a rest day on Monday, I can plan on having extra time to cook then so that on Tuesday, when I usually have a long speed work session, we can just pull something out of the fridge.

Since it's finally starting to feel like spring here, I had a craving for chilled soup this week. Chilled soups are some of the best weeknight dinners to make because (a) you don't have to cook them and (b) you never have to reheat them--suck it microwave! Anyway, this week I settled on a chilled cucumber soup because our local fruit guy was practically giving away cucumbers. I kind of made up a recipe after looking at several different ones and was very happy with the results.

Hope you like it too!


Chilled Cucumber Soup

3 lbs cucumbers, peeled, halved,     seeded and coarsely chopped*

1 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt

2 tbls. lemon juice

1/2 red onion,

chopped

2 garlic cloves

1/3 c. loosely packed fresh dill

2 tbls. loosely packed fresh tarragon 

1/4 c. olive oil, plus more for drizzling

Salt and white pepper

For Serving:

1 avocado, roughly chopped

Croutons

Combine the chopped cucumber with the yogurt, lemon juice, onion, garlic, dill, tarragon. and the 1/4 cup of olive oil. Using an immersion blender or food processor to blend until relatively smooth (I like to make sure there are still some chunks of cucumber). Season with salt and white pepper, cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight (this lets all the flavors meld together).

When ready to serve, pour the soup into bowls. Garnish with the avocado and croutons, and top with a drizzle of olive oil.

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*You can really use any kind of cucumber. I used a mix of English and garden cucumbers.