For some time I have wanted to bring food on the blog and I felt that with growing a garden and talking about the garden this was probably the best time.
I LOVE to cook and to say love is probably still an understatement. I never use recipes to the tee even in baking I am always looking to make it my own, which usually results in me never making the same thing twice. To me it's a great outlet from sitting and designing all day. From time to time I feel I need to be getting dirty and making something with hands instead of staring at a screen...I bet I am not alone in that.
All that to say I am excited to share my first live action recipe with you guys. I plan on giving great use to the garden for you so you all will want to have your own garden. Also I really love the idea of the sustainable lifestyle and though I am far from there I feel I am slowly taking steps to be there and that's most important to me, which is another reason I love cooking.
So we in total have over 50 cucumbers popping out at the moment and man do they grow fast so I wanted to give you guys a recipe that was easy, low maintenance, and you may have most things in your cuboard. Also I wanted it to be cost effective in case you were to make a lot and want to freeze it, which I recommend if you have 50 + cucumbers coming up in the garden...that or lots of cucumber water...mmm yum!
I have seen quiet a few recipes for cucumber soup and I have been very curious about it so I figured let's try it out!
Like I said before I never really truly use a recipe but for this I wanted a good skeleton since I didn't really know what I was doing. I typically don't make a lot of soup but this sounded fun!
I found the recipe on Cooks.com and really liked the choices of ingredients but I would totally encourage you to find one that sounds good for you. There are many options out there that are lighter, heavier, and even spicier so cheers to exploring cucumber soup! Also if you are vegan there are lots of vegan choices for the soup as well I saw a few that sounded pretty awesome!
So here are the ingredients as seen above:
- 6 cucumbers (mine were a little small so I upped the number)
- 1 large container of light sour cream all natural
- 1 can of pea soup (this could also be made before hand without any additives if you have fresh peas and run them through the food processor before hand...this would be the best option!)
- Curry and Cayenne Pepper - I used what worked for our taste
- Salt and peper to taste
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 cup of chicken broth (all natural organic with no MSG)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- a small bunch of parsley (place some aside for garnish
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic ( I like garlic so I added a little more than that but do what's good to you)
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
Finally add in anything else that sounds good to you why is something worth the work if it doesn't even taste good? Have some fun with it!
Then start dicing the cucumber, parsley, and onions up to prep for the food processor. They can be chunky since they will be blended it just makes the process easier.
Place the onion, cucumber, pea soup, garlic, chicken broth, and parsley a little at a time till all is mixed in well. Watch out for the cucumbers they will slide under the blade of the blender and not get chopped up...they are sneaky little guys!
Stir in the remaining ingredients such as the lemon juice, salt and pepper, curry and cayenne, worcestershire sauce, oregano, sour cream, and lemon juice. Then taste. If you like it AWESOME! If not add in more of what you feel needs to be added to meet your requirements of goodness.
Ultimately it should taste refreshing with a little a smooth creamy texture and be flavorful. I was very afraid that a cucumber soup would be very bland and man was I wrong. Once you have it to perfection it's time to serve it up for the hungry masses.
I served it in our Crate and Barrel bowls that I felt really added to the aesthetic of the whole meal. Finally I garnished with the parsley and a dash of curry for color and a little kick :) We also served this with flat bread on the side which I don't have pictured.
Honestly I think this would make for a great lunch with half a sandwich and a dry white wine but that is me. It made for a great easy dinner because I did not have to even touch the oven and I am always looking for that chance in the summer.
Lastly I had to share this sweet little photo with you Mike took while we were taking photos of the food. How adorable is she all curled up in the corner by the dresser. She played too hard in the garden I think.
Happy Thursday my friends! I would love to hear of any variations on the soup because I think there is a lot of opportunity to make some very good versions of this dish.
