richard As you might have guessed, I got a job lot of cucumbers from the market – three eye-wateringly large shafts of Cucumis Sativus for a credit crunching quid. Unlike the previous version, this soup is entirely prepared in the blender and requires no cooking – just a blender.
Preparation time: 15 minutes plus chilling time
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2 for lunch – 4 as a starter
Ingredients
For the Wasabi Relish
- frozen peas – 150g
- 1 onion – finely sliced
- olive oil – 2-3tbsp
- coriander seeds – 1tbsp
- wasabi paste – about a tsp although add more or less according to taste.
- 1 red chilli – finely chopped
- sea salt
For the Cucumber Soup
- 1 very large cucumber (or 2 supermarket sized cucumbers)
- 5 spring onions – white part only
- yoghurt – 300g
- water – 75ml
- milk – 50ml
Crush the coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar and toast over a medium heat in a dry frying pan. Set aside.
Heat the olive oil in the same frying pan and cook the onion for about 10 minutes until translucent. Add the chilli and wasabi paste and cook for a further minute.
Add the peas and toasted coriander seeds and cook for a few minutes until the peas are heated through. Taste and season with salt and more wasabi if needed.
Set aside to cool.
To make the soup, peel and de-seed the cucumber and cut into rough chunks.
Put in a blender with all the other soup ingredients and purée until smooth. Taste and season.
To serve, pour the soup into bowls and put a generous spoonful of the pea relish in the centre.
Verdict: As expected, on its own this soup is not as sophisticated as the one below. However it works perfectly as a cooling companion to the spicy wasabi peas. A simple and interesting dish.
Drink: The traditional early Sunday evening trip to the pub, with an unexpected switch to cider midway through.
Entertainment: Nothing on tele (obviously, it’s Sunday evening), so raided the DVD collection and watched the first 2 episodes from the second series of ‘Spaced’. As always, brilliant.
