Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Cooling, tangy Chilled Cucumber-Buttermilk Soup
is an instant hit

It took just one spoonful of Chilled Cucumber-Buttermilk Soup (click for the recipe) from Fine Cooking magazine for me to know we had a major hit on our hands.
   “My goodness, that’s good,” I said breathlessly after feeling the silky, cool, and tangy soup on my tongue.
   My husband nodded in complete agreement as he savored his first spoonful at the same time.
   All the ingredients complement the cucumbers: Buttermilk and sour cream for a perfect tang, and kosher salt and shallot for excellent muted savory.
   It’s a terrific side to any type of summer meal, and is very family-friendly.
   The recipe says it makes four servings, but I found it made two. Be sure to double or triple the recipe if needed, but blend the soup in batches instead of all at once.
   The soup is very easy to make.
   Peeled, seeded cucumbers cut into chunks are puréed in a blender with roughly-chopped celery, a shallot, olive oil and kosher salt.
   The mixture is strained through a sieve into a bowl, and the solids are pressed on to extract as much liquid as possible.
   Sour cream and buttermilk are whisked into the soup, which is refrigerated until cold, at least one hour.
   The recipe says to serve drizzled with olive oil and garnished with chives, but we didn’t do either of these things and still found the soup sensational.



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