Summer in the City, and the Livin' is Soupy

Well hello summer soup fans!

Judy and I are well aware that we have been slacking on our soup-making duties, but fear not. We have not forsaken soup! We are making soup even in the midst of the dog days of summer. One evening in late July, Judy and I decided to take a long overdue soup journey. We both have shares in different CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in Brooklyn and we decided to utilize some of our fresh, local, organic produce to make a refreshing summer soup. Some of summer's most abundant veggies are cucumbers and zucchini, so I loaded up my backpack with these potential soup ingredients and hopped on my bike. While biking to Judy's house in Bed-Stuy, I got caught in some torrential downpours: heavy rain, thunder, lightning- the WORKS. By the time I got to Judy's house, I was cold, wet and downtrodden. But, the one thing that can always make me feel better is soup! As soon as we began to cook, my spirits lifted. And that, soup fans, is soup magik.

We decided to make a very simple cold cucumber soup. We also baked up a loaf of zucchini bread to go with the soup. Now, I love soup, but this bread was pretty amazing. This is the produce that we used for the soup and the bread. We mixed some yellow squash in with the zucchini for the bread; it was a bold move that worked out deliciously. All produce was grown locally (Long Island, Hudson Valley, Judy's garden) with the exceptions of the lemons and limes:

Here is the soup recipe. This recipe is ripe for improvisation, so go crazy. Please note that you will need a blender.

Refreshing Cold Cucumber Soup

Servings: 3-4

3 cucumbers peeled, seeded and cut in half

3 cloves of garlic

2 1/2 cups of plain yogurt

8-10 mint leaves

Juice from 1/2 lemon

Juice from 1/2 lime

salt and pepper to taste

*We did not use dill, but this herb would be a delicious addition.

Place half of the ingredients into the blender (cukes, garlic, yogurt, mint, juices) and blend until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and blend again. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remember that raw garlic adds quite a kick!

Pour the soup into a large bowl and chill for at least 20 minutes. Garnish with mint leaves. Voila!

*Soup note: My friend Siobhan makes a version of this soup using steamed zucchini instead of cukes and it is eaten warm.

And now the bread. We used a recipe from The Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary edition.

Sweet Zucchini Bread

2 cups grated zucchini

1 1/4 cups all- purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups ground walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan or cover in tinfoil or parchment paper. In a large bowl, blend the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla and salt. Stir in the dry ingredients. Blend in the zucchini and optional nuts with a few strokes. We substituted a 1/2 cup of zucchini with grated yellow squash. The recipe says to squeeze out access moisture. We didn't do this, but the batter needed a little bit of extra moisture, so everything worked out perfectly. Scrape the batter into the greased pan. Bake until the bread pulls away from the sides, and you can put a toothpick in the middle that will come out clean-about 45 minutes. Cool for ten minutes before unmolding from the pan.

It was a match made in soup heaven! Enjoy!