Il y a du citron mais pas de vanille! Doesn’t this feel like summer? I am so ready for it…well a real summer somewhere…where it’s warm and sunny, where you can wear tank tops without a sweater on top, and where the fog doesn’t make your hair curl (it was my teenage nightmare, now I cut it, so no more curls).  Oh well, I’m sure I can find this place, I just have to drive 20 miles North or South from the city. In the meantime, I got myself in the summer mood with a chilled soup. I made this a while ago and since I had a lot of ripe avocados left, I thought it would be a good remake.

When I think of avocado, I think about skin care products, avocado’s flesh is incredibly smooth that I just want to spread it on my face, extremely delicate and subtle. Cucumber is also a wonderful ingredient for skin care as a matter of fact, so eating this soup makes me feel like I am just getting double benefits, nutritious and beautiful skin, even though I doubt that I will wake up tomorrow with a smooth and peachy skin like you see on magazines! Anyway, on peut toujours rêver, you can always dream about it.

I bought so many of those mini glasses for mise en bouche while I was in France, and they did not even break in the suitcase, so now I have to use them, and this chilled soup is perfect for these mini presentations. Actually I like to use mini glasses for avocado soup, avocado being quite high in calories, it’s better to serve it in small portions than regular plates.

What’s more perfect for informal dinners where you want to serve small bites and cute apéritifs to nibble on without feeling stuffed?

I don’t know about you, but my favorite dishes to prepare are appetizers and hors d’oeuvres. It’s where I have the most fun, probably because they are related to entertainment and that’s really one of my favorite activity (if that can be called one).

This soup needs to be consumed chilled, so you can prepare it in advance and leave it in the refrigerator until serving. It’s quick, tasty and delicious, so a “keeper” in my food world.

Ingredients for 15-20 mini glasses

• 1.5 avocado
• 1/2 English cucumber, peeled and seeds removed
• juice of 1 Meyer lemon
• 3 tbs Greek yogurt or regular yogurt
• 2 scallions, chopped
• cayenne pepper
• 1 cup or more vegetable broth
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Remove the flesh of the avocado, mix with cucumber and add lemon juice. Mix all ingredients well. Add all other ingredients and, using a hand blend, mix to obtain a smooth consistency.

For the broth, I added it gradually until I got the consistency I wanted. Avocado being creamy, you might need to add more broth.

Refrigerate for a few hours, and serve chilled.