The heat goes on: Fight back, with Cold Cucumber Avocado Soup with Radish Garnish

Cucumber, avocado, potato, buttermilk, Greek yogurt, half and half, chicken stock and lime juice create a cool, creamy, tangy, refreshing summer soup. Recipe below.

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. Dry. Hot. Right now is a breezy, refreshing 98. We are crawling around on the surface of the planet like miserable bugs.

As Terry has sometimes mentioned, I used to address weather like this by making cold cucumber soup. The trigger for this was the legendary cold cucumber bisque we would have at the former Balaban’s in St. Louis. My versions varied tremendously, and they were always interesting, but they were never like Balaban’s. That recipe was a closely guarded secret—one of those instances when everyone who worked there would get all coy and diffident if you asked about the ingredients. “Oh, I don’t know, some people think it has summer savory in it,” they would say in a demure tone. “I’ve heard it might have yogurt in it.” Sometimes they would turn it into a question: “Sour cream?” Continue reading “The heat goes on: Fight back, with Cold Cucumber Avocado Soup with Radish Garnish”

A chilled seasonal soup for unseasonably hot weather: Green Garlic Vichyssoise

Green garlic, in farmers markets right now, teams with leeks, potatoes, butter and half & half to create a cool, creamy, delicately garlicky first course. Recipe (with substitutions) below.

When it comes to large, hardworking families with big personalities, Allium outdoes even the Baldwin brothers. More savory recipes than not put at least one of member of the Allium family to work—onions (yellow, Bermuda, pearl, etcetera), leeks, scallions, chives, garlic, shallots… And then there are the seasonal workers—ramps, scapes and the star of last weekend’s Logan Square Farmers Market, green garlic.

Green garlic is just what the name implies—garlic picked early, before the bulbs have formed into cloves. Originally the byproduct of farmers thinning their garlic crops, green garlic has come into its own as a seasonal treat found almost exclusively at farmers markets and roadside stands. Continue reading “A chilled seasonal soup for unseasonably hot weather: Green Garlic Vichyssoise”