Basic Chilled Cucumber Soup Recipe

My friend Bob made me one of my first chilled soups—a basic cucumber soup—and I remember it fondly to this day. After that we embarked on numerous culinary chilled-soup adventures (It's one of the only things I want to eat during the hot Summer!) but I always think back to that first cup of simple, basic, heavenly cucumber soup. This is my attempt to recreate it and I think it's pretty close. Note that one can elaborate on this to make a plethora of exciting chilled soups, so the recipe is doubly-valuable in acting as one of my "foundation recipes".

Ingredients

• 2 large cucumbers, peeled, cored and seeded
• 1 medium (white) onion
• 1/4 cup butter (4 tbsp)
• 1.5 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp dill weed
• 1.5 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 8oz package of (light¹) sour cream
• 1 tsp salt (maybe 2)

• Finely chop (or even grate in cuisinart) onion and cucumbers.
• Melt butter and saute onion and cucumbers until "wilted but not browned".
• Add broth, water, lemon, basil, dill and simmer for about 10 minutes.
• Move contents to blender and liquify for a while.
• Pour contents through strainer/sieve and mash as much liquid through as possible.
• Chill for a couple hours.
• Reblend with sour cream.
• Serve with paprika garnish.

¹ nutritionally speaking, "light" sour cream is preferable over both regular and fat-free. It has little fat and little sugar. Fat-free has gobs of carbohydrates and regular has gobs of fat. In this soup the taste is also just fine.

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