Cold Cucumber Avocado Soup

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made this soup as an appetizer on a hot summer night. It is refreshing and super fast to make! I know that I have blogged about a few other cucumber soups. What can I say it's hot and nasty out there! This one is by far the creamiest. I adapted it from a Cook's Illustrated Recipe (you may need a membership to view original). Their recipe called for much bigger portions. I also tried to make the process easier and lighten it up a bit for the good ol ww.

Serves 5 (1 cup servings)
ww = 3 points per serving (since this was an appetizer I actually served less of the soup than 1 cup)

Chilled Cucumber Patty Pan Soup

The perfect meal for this heat wave we are in the middle of!

Summer Shrimp Gazpacho

This recipe is awesome. While it was inspired by good ol Martha again, I changed it up a bit. It is extremely healthy and fast. To make this you will need a blender at a minimum, but either a food processor or an immersion mixer will help to whip this up in a snap. I also served it with fresh pizza bread from the bakery down the street. I love brooklyn!

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3/4 Large Purple Onion
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 Yellow and 1 Red Roasted Pepper (I bought a jar of them mixed)
3 cups tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 T parsley, finely chopped
2 T  cilantro, finely chopped
1 lb shrimp, fully cleaned and cooked
freshly ground sea salt and black pepper (to taste)

1. In the food processor chop onion. Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a frying pan. Saute all but 2 T of the onion over medium heat in the pan until it begins to brown.
2. In a blender, blend the can of diced tomatoes until it is smooth. Pour into a large bowl.
3. Peel cucumber. Dice half of it and set aside. Cut the other half into large chunks and add to the onions in the food processor. Do the same with the red and yellow roasted peppers, adding the diced peppers to the diced cucumber, and the large chunks of pepper to the food processor.
Add the chopped tomatoes and cloves of garlic to the food processor. Pulse all ingredients together until smooth (onions, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and garlic).
4. Mix the vegetable mixture from the food processor with the pureed tomatoes in the bowl. Add the cooked onion, and diced cucumber, pepper,  parsley and cilantro. Stir until well mixed.
5. Season with salt and pepper and one t olive oil. Add more cilantro or parsley if desired.
6. Serve topped with shrimp.

Zucchini-Carrot Curry Soup

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart's Great Food Fast. I recommend buying her book if you are interested in making cooking a little more simple. I have a tendency to over-complicate dishes so I enjoy cooking the recipes in this cookbook.

 This soup is very flavorful and healthy. I think it would work well for a picnic food as well.

Cold Cucumber Soup...the blog's first trip!

Warning: This is the easiest soup you will ever make! :)

Last night I went to my friend Sonia's apartment so we could cook together. Since we used to live together we make a great team in the kitchen. This experience cooking was very different from all others. Since I was in a funk, I was happy to distract myself in the kitchen. So, sonia happily sat at the bar stools scrounging the internet for ideas on how we should make the meal we decided on. She gave me instructions on what to do and I did it. Made it brainless for me. The first course was to a cold cucumber soup, and the second was sea bass cooked with a side of potatoes (recipe to follow in next post).

Ingredients
3 cucumbers, peeled
3 scallions
2 garlic cloves, minced
32 oz fat free plain yogurt (Greek would make it the creamiest)
3 T fresh dill, chopped
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

1. Cut cucumber and scallions (use greens and stems) into big chunks. Place in blender.
2. Add minced garlic, yogurt, dill, lemon, and salt and pepper (to taste) to the blender.
3. Blend until homogeneous. Serve cold.