Cool off with this refreshing and invigorating cucumber mint soup. Cucumbers, mint, and lime juice are some of the coolest foods around. When pureed with an avocado, some coconut milk, and spices, you get an amazingly flavorful and healthy chilled soup that has a lovely, creamy texture.
With the outdoor temperature around here soaring this week, a cold soup is a perfect addition to any meal. And it is so easy to make–just put the ingredients in a blender and blend! Then pour it into a container and let it chill! This recipe is adapted from my husband’s favorite cookbook, Thrive Energy Cookbook by Brendan Brazier. It is a plant-based, vegan recipe–great for building up the immune system and recharging the body with lots of wonderful nutrients. If you don’t like coconut milk, you can always substitute Greek yogurt to get the creamy texture without the subtle coconut taste. I have gotten so I really like the coconut milk taste, and it feels good to have an alternative to dairy sometimes, though I still love my cheese and yogurt.
I made this soup a couple of times this week especially for my husband. Like I mentioned, he loves the Thrive cookbook, and he loves all these super-healthy, plant-based recipes. Since he is almost fully recovered from his knee surgery and enjoying doing more running and exercising outside, he is looking for food that will help his body renew and gain energy. Our kids don’t love this soup, so it is in honor of my husband that I make it (though I like it a lot too). In the busy hubbub of our days and our life right now, he doesn’t always get the special attention he got when we were first married. He is my biggest supporter when it comes to me doing this blog, and he is awesome.
Summer is fully, completely here. We went swimming at a nearby lake last weekend. Before we left for home, I went into the bathroom there to change out of my wet bathing suit. The changing room had an open-air courtyard and curtains across the individual changing stalls. The wind came in through the open ceiling and was lightly blowing the curtains, not enough to compromise anyone’s privacy, but enough that the curtains were billowing gently in the breeze, creating a hushed, peaceful atmosphere. It was such a serene setting, with the sun shining through the leaves in the open-air ceiling, and the curtains quietly flowing with the breeze. Women from all walks of life were going in and out, and everyone was so peaceful and refreshed after cooling off in the lake. I never expected to find this lovely setting in a public bathroom at a state park. It was a quiet oasis in the middle of a busy crowd, like time was standing still for a few minutes.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and can find some time for some peace in the middle of it all! Fiesta Friday is a happy space to visit too, and I plan to head over there soon. Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook and Colleen @ Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck are co-hosting this week.
Cucumber Mint Soup
Ingredients:
- 3 medium cucumbers, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 small clove of garlic, minced
- a small handful of fresh mint leaves, torn from the stems
- a small handful of cilantro leaves, torn from the stems
- 1 ripe avocado, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
- 1 cup of coconut milk
- a pinch of chili powder
- fresh mint leaves for garnish
Directions:
Wash the vegetables and herbs. Peel and coarsely chop the cucumbers. If they have big seeds, cut out the seedy parts before chopping. Tear the mint and cilantro from their stems and peel and chop the avocado. Squeeze the lime juice. Place the cucumber, mint, cilantro, avocado and lime juice in a blender. Add the cumin, sea salt, and pepper. Puree all the ingredients. Add the coconut milk and lightly blend to combine. Add more salt, if desired. Pour the soup into a container, cover it tightly, and chill for at least an hour. Serve the soup cold as a side dish or a light lunch. Top with a pinch of chili powder (it looks pretty when swirled) and mint leaves if desired. This tastes great with tortilla chips! Enjoy!
I love a good leek and potato soup, but this time I wanted to add chicken to make the meal extra filling for my growing boy and my hungry husband. The mild flavor of chicken and chicken broth go great with the potatoes and leeks. At the end of the cooking time, I added milk instead of the traditional cream, to make it lighter, yet still creamy and silky. Leek and potato soup is usually pureed in a blender, but with the chicken, that is not such a good idea. However, I found that since the vegetables cooked all day in the crockpot, they were very tender and soft anyway. Topped with some fresh chives and salt and pepper, this meal is a keeper.
I have had my crockpot for many years, and I find it to be such a lifesaver during the times in our life when I am unable to be home making dinner at dinner time. This week has been that kind of a week, and this soup really hit the spot for my guys–with leftovers, we had it two nights in a row. If you need a quick crockpot soup to throw together in the morning so you can get out of a pinch in the evening, this is a delicious one!
My kids both had their band concert a couple of nights ago. There is something about listening to live music that is so invigorating and satisfying. It brings up all kinds of emotions and memories, and it brings people together. At the end of the concert, the combined high school and junior high bands played “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. Someone turned on the disco ball in the auditorium, and we in the audience sat there in the dark, with little twinkling lights swirling around us, listening to our kids play a song that was part of our own teenage years. For a few minutes we were suspended in time. When the concert ended and the lights came back on, I was not the only one with moist eyes. The band sounded so good! The kids played so well. Children grow so fast. Time flies. We are all in this together.
It really is a good meal to have right now, in early March, when we are longing for color, but our gardens have not caught up to that longing yet. And though our snow has all melted and it has warmed up some, it is still cold and damp enough outside to appreciate a nice warm bowl of chili.
Speaking of gardens and color, I did see some crocus and daffodil shoots poking up just above the soil in our yard yesterday. Spring is coming, though here in Michigan I’m sure we have some cold days ahead of us before spring really settles in.
For now, it is the perfect time to tromp around in my favorite boots through mud and wet undergrowth, cleaning up the yard or hiking down to the lake. My friend and I came across these beautiful milkweed pods on a walk the other day.
