Beat the heat, cold avocado citrus soup
You know a recipe works when regular meat eating husband wants more. This is one of the recipes in my Delicious Gluten Free Cooking downloadable ebook. Remember I offer cooking classes, dinner parties, talks on clean eating, real food, trans fats, gmo's etc.
CHILLED AVOCADO CITRUS SOUP
4-6 Dinner Party portions, about 3 cups, 24 fl oz, 720ml.
I made this on NH's ABC WMUR cooks corner on August 10, 2015.
still from appearance on www.wmur.com
Allyson and I had this soup years ago at the Elephant Walk Restaurant (Cambodian/French) in Waltham, Ma and got the staff to give us the recipe. We both made it with our own variations plus change of quantities for home eating. It was reallllly good, but I think the most important part is wonderfully ripe tomatoes, followed by ripe avocado.
1 small onion, finely chopped (about 1 tbsp, 15 ml) and 1 tsp (5 ml) salt or chopped green onion.
1+1/3 cup (330ml, 11 fl oz) orange juice - I used non concentrate Tropicana - quality does make a difference
2 tbsp – 1/4c (30-60 ml, 1-2 fl oz) freshly squeezed lime juice (1-2 limes, bit less than they used as it was slightly too tangy for me - your choice, start with less lime juice and add more to your taste)
salt and pepper
1 tsp (5 ml) sugar
1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely crushed (flavor mellows and raw garlic taste disappears, add it to onion in water if you want)
2 tsp (10ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 large, ripe avocado, halved, stoned and flesh cut into ½ inch (3 cm) cubes. Do not cut avocado in your hand, put it on chopping board.
4-5 Fresh button mushrooms, cleaned, halved and cut into ¼ inch slices
2/3 cup (about 1 Large) really ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeds removed and cut into ½” dice or 5-6 Campari tomatoes. Far easier to do one large tomato. I've got lazy and only peel the tomato when the skin is tough, I don't deseed either.
Freshly chopped cilantro for serving -optional for those that don’t like cilantro
1. Mix the chopped onion (and garlic) with salt and leave to stand for 20-30 minutes. Rinse the salt off the onion, drain and squeeze off excess water. Draws out the strong juices of raw onion. Or use chopped green onions (spring onions, scallions) and don’t salt them.
2. Mix orange juice, lime juice, garlic, sugar and salt and pepper, stir to dissolve sugar and salt.
3. Add olive oil and mix well.
4. Add diced tomato, avocado, mushrooms and onion, stir gently to mix well.
5.Let chill and blend for about 1 hour before serving. Taste and adjust salt, pepper and more lime juice before serving.
6. Top each portion with chopped cilantro - optional
The soup kept well in the fridge for several days. The orange juice prevents the avocado from browning.
I think it would also be tasty with some tiny salad shrimp.
This recipe was also in readers request recipe in Gourmet magazine, but it was slightly different and included sliced, raw radishes.
