No-Cook Soup

Is it too hot out to cook? Need a nice refreshing dish to cool you off?

Good thing you read this blog, because I have a great recipe for you!

Chilled Cucumber Soup

It was pure chance that I stumbled upon this recipe. After being evacuated from work this afternoon (I work right next to Discovery headquarters where a man was holding hostages earlier), I decided to hit the treadmill at my complex for a little bit, and picked up "Real Simple" to read once I decided to walk.

As I was flipping through the magazine, I was intrigued by the bowl of green soup, so I read the recipe and ingredient list and thought to myself,

"Hey, I have all those ingredients already!"

So I ripped out the recipe, ran upstairs to my apartment and made this fabulous, super easy no-cook soup.

Ingredients:
3/4 fat-free sour cream
4 scallions, roughly chopped
2 jalapenos, seeded
1/2 C. fresh basil
1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
2 english cucumbers, peeled and roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

In blender, puree the sour cream, scallions, jalapenos, basil, lime juice, half the cucumbers, 1/4 C. water, salt and pepper.

Add the remaining cucumbers and puree until smooth - add water as needed to get the right consistency.

Let chill for an hour, squeeze in some more lime juice if you like, and serve!

Tips:
Now how easy was that?
I can't say that this is my favorite recipe ever, but it definitely hit the spot on such a hot day. I guess you will have to make it and try it yourself to see what you think...and if you do, let me know what you think!

I wanted to give some tips for cutting jalapenos for you pepper amateurs. In my experience, since the pepper is so small and you hit the seeds as soon as you cut into it, I find it best to make a small incision (I sound like a surgeon) lengthwise down the center of the pepper.

Once you have made the cut, carefully peel parts of the pepper away from the seeds. You will end up with something that looks like this...

In terms of ww* points, the only thing that counts is the sour cream and that is about 5 for the whole recipe (if that), so we will over-guess and say 1 heaping cup of this soup has about 1 point.

Serve this with a nice piece of toasty baguette and you are all set.