Just as a hypothetical, let’s say you had some Cleary Hill Farm Cucumbers, and you started making Aunt Bea’s Immediate Pickly Cucumbers, but something came up. A day later you think, “I wish I knew how to make Alfalfa’s famous Sour Cream Cucumber Soup” – but the recipe does not show up online, and drifting through other cucumber soup recipes fails to inspire….because, let’s just guess – you want to go in the kitchen, and outside into the garden, and play with what’s available.
When that happened to me, here’s what I found and loaded into my blender, resulting in Cucumber Smoothie with Optional Ambrosia Sweet Corn Add-In.
- 1 cup fresh cucumber chunks, partially peeled, no seeds
- 1 long green onion stem
- 1 celery stalk
- Handful of mixed fresh herbs: mint, tarragon, flat-leaf parsley
- Pinch of dried dill and ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 cup cultured milk: I used 1/3 cup each plain yogurt, buttermilk, and sour cream
- Freshly grated black pepper
After blending until smooth and tasting, I realized (a) I like the taste and the slightly coarse texture, which reminded me of a smoothie. Then I realized (b) This IS a smoothie: It is better in a glass than a bowl; it is useful as a late afternoon pick-me-up — as fruit smoothies are — and, like all smoothies in my kitchen, it is appropriately made from dibs and dabs. Soups, by contrast, I view with caution, and nearly always with some type of recipe in hand, at least as a starting point.
So – the Cucumber Smoothie. And then I tried a sweet corn add in, and liked the contrast of salty/lemony/oniony liquid with the sweet, chewy kernels. Specifically, this Cucumber Smoothie got dressed up this way:
- 1 ear microwaved “Ambrosia” sweet corn, kernels cut off; uncooked fresh sweet corn would work just as well
Other add-ins would be good, too, but were not handy. Here’s a list of (so far) imaginary add-ins:
- Fine chunks of peeled cucumber
- Ice cubes, if it’s a 95 degree day and one wants chillllllll
- A few Sun Gold tomatoes, or other sweet cherry tomatoes, halved
- Sweet red or yellow peppers, in small dice
- Chopped fresh avocado
- Finely chopped fresh jalapeño bits or a sprinkle of crushed red peppers or ground cayenne
- Or…blurring the veggie/fruit divide…chopped watermelon? Red raspberries?
To your health!
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The world is coming to visit central Kentucky this year for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. To help our visitors know more about Kentucky’s food and food ways, Savoring Kentucky is rolling out 116 Savory Kentucky Bites, one for each of the 100 days before WEG begins, and 16 for the days during WEG, September 25 – October 10. Today’s Savory Bite is number 74.
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