Canal House Cooking's Cold Avocado & Cucumber Soup
A creamy chilled soup for summer
Working from their kitchen-studio in Lambertville, N.J., Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton have been quietly innovating food publishing. The media-savvy pair–Hirsheimer was a founder of Saveur magazine and Hamilton worked for Cook's Illustrated–create and publish Canal House Cooking, a thrice-yearly magazine-book hybrid replete with lush food photos and home-tested recipes. This refreshing chilled soup (from their latest edition) combines rich avocados with crisp cucumbers. It's an ideal dinner for a hot summer night, as it requires no cooking and can be prepped in just a few minutes.
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Recipe adapted from Canal House Cooking, Volume No. 4
Cold Avocado and Cucumber Soup
Chilled avocado-cucumber soup recipe from the new Canal House cookbook
servings
4
Servings
Ingredients
- 3 ripe, unblemished avocados
- 1 English cucumber, unpeeled, roughly chopped (about 2 cups)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 4 cups chicken stock
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Sour cream, for serving
- Hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco), for serving
Directions
- Slice the avocados in half lengthwise, working around the pit. Twist to separate the halves. Remove the pit and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh.
- Add the avocados, cucumber, garlic, lemon juice and chicken stock to a blender and puree until smooth, working in batches if necessary. Season with salt and refrigerate until the soup is well chilled.
- Divide the soup among 4 chilled bowls. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a dash of hot pepper sauce and serve.