Chilled Avocado Soup

One of my very favorite things about summer is chilled soups. I could eat them with a nice crusty piece of bread all summer long. Gazpacho is one of my favorites, but as I was leafing through the current issue of Martha Stewart Living, I saw a page all about avocados and how good they are for health. And since I’m already avocado obsessed, I knew I wanted to make the chilled avocado soup right away. Super duper easy; it took me a total of 10 minutes (plus an hour to chill).

If you find this post to be a bit photo-heavy, there’s a reason. I’ll explain at the end of this post!

Chilled Avocado Soup (Serves 2. Or 1 hungry avocado lover)

• 1 avocado (pitted and peeled)
• 1 seeded cucmber
• 1/2 C low-fat buttermilk
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 T fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Martha’s recipe only called for 1/2 an avocado, but mine were pretty small, so I decided to throw in the whole thing. Plus, my cucumber was one of those huge seeded ones from Trader Joe’s. I only used about 3/4 of what you see in the bowl above. But the great thing about this recipe is that you can add more of whatever you want if you taste it while it’s in the blender.

Another fabulous thing about this recipe is that you don’t have to do a neat job peeling and cutting the avocado because it’s all going in the blender anyway. Woot! I love not being neat.

Little slices of heaven:

Basically all you do is throw everything in the blender. Seriously.

Blend it all together until it’s smooth.

Serve it in a bowl with some diced cucumber for garnish.

And yes, that’s all there is to it!

The soup was so amazingly refreshing. The recipe says you can add some water while blending to thin it out, but I thought it was the perfect consistency. To me, it tasted equal parrts avocado and cucumber and I loved the little bite the lemon gave it.

I eat a lot and most generally have a huge appetite, but sometimes in the summer heat, I don’t love eating huge meals (sometimes) and this soup is perfect for times like that. It would also be great to put in a thermos and take on a picnic or just to eat on your deck (if you’re so lucky to have one) with a glass of wine.

Avocados are so healthy for you (good fat!) and I love getting my nutrition while eating something delicious. 10 minutes!! That’s all it took. Yay summer!

So, the reason for the photos. I’m testing out a new Nikon P90 as a part of a really cool program called Nikon CoolPix Circle, so I’m going picture-taking crazy. Basically I’m the worst photographer in the land, so I’m excited to see if a new camera helps me at all. This program is awesome because they’re lending both Chels and I cameras for 3-6 months and then giving us the option to buy at a discount. Whether we buy them or return them, all the proceeds (or cameras) go to charity. We’ve both been wanting to try some different cameras, so we’re really, really excited about this! Definitely let me know what you think about the pictures.

And don’t forget to enter the Born to Fit Gap giftcard giveaway! Only 24 hours left 🙂

[Sues]