And so we begin...

A long time ago, my lovely friend Carolyn suggested I start a food blog.  I love to eat (naming this blog was ridiculously easy) and  I, like everyone over 15 and under 55, have an instagram page full of food photos, so it seemed like a good idea.  However, I'm also easily distracted and promptly forgot about her suggestion.  Well, it's a new year and I'm making a concerted effort to cook my way through my cookbooks and thought I could track my efforts here.  This isn't a Julie and Julia type project; I'm not aiming to cook every recipe in my cookbooks, just cook more than the handful of tried and true recipes I'm already in love with.  

 

First up is a stocking stuffer from this Christmas, Jamie Magazine's Recipe Yearbook 2012/13.  The book is full of colour photos and is separated by season.  I have long been a fan of Jamie Oliver's cooking style.  I own Jamie at Home and have several issues of the magazine.  He cooks simple, rustic food that always appeals to me. 

Recipe #1, Chilled Avocado Soup, comes from the summer section of the book.  It may be January but it's disturbingly warm out for this winter girl so I went with a cold soup (I also have a few ripe avocados in the fridge and I'm sick of guacamole). 

 

This soup was delicious.  I've made a few different avocado soups and this is the lightest and brightest tasting one I've ever made.  It's also really easy to make - you just need a food processor or a blender. 

 

 

 

Chilled Avocado Soup

adapted from Jamie Magazine's Recipe Yearbook 2012/13

 

Ingredients *

 

250ml chilled vegetable stock

200ml plain yogurt

1 large ripe avocado, chopped

1 cucumber, deseeded  and chopped (they suggest peeling it. I'm lazy ,so I didn't)

approx 10 chives roughly chopped

3 tbsp roughly chopped cilantro

juice of 1 lime

Sriracha (or any hot sauce of your choice), to taste

Salt. to taste

Chili flakes (optional)

 

Instructions

 

1.  Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend to desired consistency.

2.  Chill soup.

3.  Eat soup.  (Didn't I say it was really easy to make?  I meant it.)

 

 

* The original recipe contains garlic chives and spring onions but as I don't eat raw garlic and onions, I omitted them.  I expect they'd be delicious in this recipe so you should probably use them.  No pressure though.