The Birth of a Recipe

Several years ago at a lovely Church function for the ladies, a delicious soup was served. It was the first time that I had tasted a cold soup.

I liked it. OK, I really liked it and ate the bowl from the person beside me who didn’t show. That may not be appropriate, but I had to slowly taste it and try to figure out the ingredients. All I could guess, and it was green, was the avocado. I asked and asked to find out the recipe. No one seemed to know who had made it or provided it–or they at least didn’t speak up. I felt quite upset. This was such a novel thing to me–cold soup. Avocado soup!

Thus the hunt began. Web page after web page were read in the quest. I literally tried for days to find this really unique combination, and there are so many recipes for this out there! I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has tasted something and then craved it and couldn’t find it!!!

After weeks, I just started printing out recipe after recipe. I killed at least a tree. I went through the stack over and over looking for the right ingredients.

All right. I had the avocado figured out. Then I saw cucumber!! Yes, that was the other main ingredient that had the fresh, vibrant tone to it. At that point, I had found the easy part. It would have been one thing if I were just creating a recipe, but I had this taste embedded in my head that I had to match!

I’m sure at that time my husband thought I was a little crazy for this overzealous search. I couldn’t find “it.”

I finally just wrote down a list to try. There are so many versions out there. I needed my version. Salt. Cucumbers need salt. Then I struggled for something else. Heat. Avocados are used in guacamole, so some pepper seemed like an appropriate thing. I had some ground chipotle pepper in the cupboard and put that in. At this point, I realized it would need to be thinned down a lot (or you have dip). I had seen cream and chicken broth used in the various recipes. I figured that the smoothness of dairy would be nice, but I dropped the calories and used whole milk. At this point the color looked right so I felt like I was on the right path, but some flavors were still missing.

Opening the cabinet doors, there were all of my spices (I like to have a lot of them). The garlic and onion powders seemed to look at me, so I pulled them out. I then remembered the tomatillo salsa that I make–the lemon and lime juices add a hidden kick that is barely noticed, but goes so well with the heat and cucumber.

So, the blender and I became one. I’d put an item in and taste. Add more and taste. A couple of hours later I was full and gladly pleased.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. You, too, can try to create from it to make it your own “recipe.” Now I still crave it, but can pop over to the store and make it in just a few minutes. It is best if it sits after it is made in the refrigerator for a few hours, but when I just gotta have it…. 🙂 So, the recipe was born.

Avocado Soup

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