Cold soups are perfect to serve on hot summer nights. This one requires no cooking at all! Everything just gets put into a blender and mixed together really well, until it is smooth.

I saw this recipe in Gourmet magazine, and thought it would be a perfect startcooking recipe. All you need to make this soup is:

• 1 English cucumber
• 1 avocado
• 2 green onions
• 1/4 cup of fresh mint
• 1/2 cup buttermilk or yogurt or sour cream (See Note at bottom of post)
• 1 1/2 cups of water

Start by chopping 2/3 of the cucumber into chunks, and dice the remaining 1/3 cucumber.

The chunks are going to be put in the blender and the diced cucumber is for the garnish.

The remaining ingredients just need to be chopped up a bit before they get added to the blender.

If you are unsure how to cut avocados check out my blog on Avocados.

Measure 1/2 cup of buttermilk (or yogurt) and 1 1/2 cups of cold water.

Add the water and buttermilk to the blender.

Start by blending everything on a low speed at first, then increase it just a bit. Everything needs to get totally chopped up and then made really smooth. This will take about 2 minutes of blending.

You can chill this soup for up to 3 hours before serving, and then garnish it with the diced cucumbers just before serving.

This soup is a beautiful color and the cucumbers add a wonderful crunch!

* Note:

I discovered one BIG problem with this recipe after I made it. What the heck do I tell a novice cook to do with the leftover buttermilk? In retrospect I should have suggested using yogurt or sour cream instead. Either would work beautifully for this recipe, and there are a lot of things you could do with leftover sour cream/yogurt.

If you are going to use buttermilk, you could always drink the leftovers??? (Has anyone seen “White Christmas”? Isn’t that what they were drinking before singing “Count Your Blessings”?)
Anyhow, I’m asking all my experienced cooks to toss in some EASY suggestions on what to make with leftover buttermilk!

Thanks and I hope you enjoy the soup!
Kathy

You can view and print this recipe here.

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