Chilled Avocado Soup Recipe From ‘Chocolate & Marrow’
Every week, we’re spotlighting a different food blogger who’s shaking up the blogosphere with tempting recipes and knockout photography. Below, Brooke Conroy Bass of Chocolate & Marrow walks us through a recipe for sopa fría de aguacate, a chilled avocado soup of Mexican origin.
Photo: Brooke Conroy Bass
Sopa Fría de Aguacate, 2 Ways
Serves 6-8
For a food blogger, summertime is all about grilling fresh vegetables and meats — embracing the beautiful weather and the bounty of produce that surrounds us. But you know what sucks about that? The dearth of soup! Recently I decided to try my hand at something I’d never done before — a chilled soup, utilizing seasonal ingredients like avocados, chiles, and tomatoes.
The dish is a Mexican soup called sopa fría de aguacate, or chilled avocado soup. The way I’ve prepared it here is not vegetarian, though it easily could be adapted to fit a vegetarian lifestyle as I describe in the recipe. As I was making this soup, though, I felt torn — do I prepare it in its classic form or try something a little less traditional? But then I thought, why the heck is there an “or” in that sentence? Why not just do both?
So both I did, making the first the classic way by topping it with a trio of tomatoes, onions, and jalepenos. The second I topped with lump crabmeat and an extra hit of cayenne. Both were bright, refreshing, and fresh, but you could honestly top this soup with just about anything.
4 jalapeño chiles, divided (3 jalapeño stemmed, seeded, and chopped roughly; the remaining jalapeño stemmed, seeded, and chopped finely for topping)
3 large ripe avocados, pitted, peeled, and chopped into chunks
1 medium white onion, divided into 2 parts (chop half roughly and the other half finely for optional topping)
6 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock for a vegetarian alternative)
¼ cup cream (optional)
Juice of ½ a lime
½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper, plus more if desired
Salt, to taste
½ cup of lump crabmeat for topping (optional)
2 plum tomatoes, cored, seeded, and finely chopped (optional)
Begin by puréeing the 3 stemmed jalapeños, the avocados, and ½ of the onion until a thick paste forms. Add to a large pot with the chicken stock, cream, and lime juice. Use an immersion blender to blend until silky smooth. (Alternatively, you could combine all of these ingredients in a large food processor and blend it all there. If you do this, you may need to pass it through a fine strainer to get the larger chunks out.)
Season soup with cayenne pepper and salt, to taste. Place in refrigerator for 1-2 hours, until chilled.
Top with lump crab meat and/or finely chopped onions, tomatoes, and remaining pepper just before serving.
Notes: This recipe is easily made vegan by simply omitting the cream and crabmeat and substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth.
More chilled things to slurp:
10 Cold Soups for Hot Summer Nights
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