This cool, creamy summer soup, with a lovely bright tang from kefir and lemon juice and floral aroma of basil, is as easy to make as a smoothie—just blend all the ingredients and chill. If you don’t have kefir, you can use plain yogurt plus a little extra water to thin the soup to your liking.
Ingredients
1 medium English cucumber (about 12 ounces) unpeeled, seeded
1 ripe avocado, pitted and peeled
1 cup plain low-fat or whole milk kefir
¼ cup basil leaves
1 large scallion, white and light green part only, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
¼ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Finely dice ¼ cup of the cucumber and set aside for garnish. Coarsely chop the rest of the
cucumber and put it into a blender. Add the avocado, kefir, basil, scallion, lemon zest and juice,
salt and pepper and ¾ cups of water to the blender and blend until smooth. Season with
additional salt to taste.
Transfer the soup to an airtight container and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
Serve garnished with the diced cucumber.
Makes 4 servings
Serving size: 1 cup
Per serving: Calories 130; Total Fat 8g; (Sat Fat 1.5g); Protein 5g; Carb 12g; Fiber 4g; Cholesterol 5mg; Sodium 320mg, Sugar 5g, Added Sugar 0g
