Week 8: Sopa de Aguacate

Hey Bon,
So you brought me home to California with avocados!  Unfortunately, they aren't quite as good in Illinois.  This might have been our trickiest ingredient yet because, while I eat large amounts of this delish fruit, I usually prepare it as guacamole.  My dad, a Tucson native, is somewhat of a guacamole-making-master.  My favorite part about my Dad’s guac is his meticulous process of making it, because it requires multiple rounds of taste tests.  This is where I come in.  More lime?  More salt?  More chile?   Obviously, answering each question requires another mouthful of the concoction.  You know me—always willing to pitch in for the greater good!

However, I felt like guac would be a copout for a Kumquat recipe, and I was eager to discover new avocado preparations.  After picking my brain, and scouring cookbooks for inspiration, I was drawn to the tomatillo avocado sopa Heidi Swanson, of 101Cookbooks, included in her fabulous book Super Natural Cooking.  I have never cooked with tomatillos before and when I saw them at the Wicker Park farmers’ market in this adorable little basket, I made my move. 

Before I pass on the recipe, a word of warning:  do not overfill the blender with the hot tomatillo mixture.  If you attempt to get too efficient, your kitchen might end up covered in a layer of green goop.  

The soup is really quick and refreshing.  Make sure to leave some for lunch the next day, as the soup only gets better with more chilling in the fridge.  Also, we liberally loaded the soup with chips, plain yogurt (you could use sour cream), salsa, and even ate quesadillas with it.  This is NOT watered down guacamole...it might be just as good though!

Next week's ingredient = black-eyed peas.

xo,

Leigh 

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Crema de Guacamole

From Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

12 small tomatillos

3 serrano chiles, seeded and chopped

1 white onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

6 cups vegetable stock

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice, plus more as needed

4 large ripe avocados, peeled and pitted

1/2 cup loosely packed chopped fresh cilantro

sea salt to taste

1/2 lime

crema, for garnish (optional--I served the soup with plain soy yogurt, and it was delicious)

fresh salsa, for garnish (optional)

1 small handful of cilantro, chopped, for garnish
Tortilla chips for garnish

1. Remove the husks and stems from the tomatillos. Rinse them well, coarsely chop, and put in a soup pot along with the peppers, onion, garlic and stock. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then immediately lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the tomatillos start losing their structure.

2. Purée thoroughly with either a hand-held immersion blender or a conventional blender.  If using a blender, be careful; the hot liquid can burst out the top and make a huge, potentially painful mess. Try leaving the lid slightly ajar to allow steam to escape. Cover the top with a kitchen towel and blend in batches on low speed.)

3. Cool for 30 minutes, then stir in the lime juice. Refrigerate until completely chilled.
4. In a separate bowl, blend the avocados thoroughly with salt, cilantro, and lots of lime juice.  Blend the avocado mixture into the chilled soup base and adjust the lime and salt as necessary.  Return the soup to the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it.  Serve with your choice of garnishes on top.

*My alteration to the original recipe: In Heidi's book, she suggests pushing the finished mixture through a strainer before chilling.  I like chunky, textured soups so I skipped this step, leaving the seeds in the soup.

Comments

[Allison]

I don't see in the recipe instructions where you used the avocados. Are they to be blended up in the soup, or used as garnish?

[Bonnie and Leigh]

Hi Allison,

Thanks for your comment--and for drawing my attention to my leaving out of the final (and VERY important!) step! I added a 4th step to the recipe above...the avocado is not used as a garnish, but actually blended into the soup. This way it provides a lot of body and a velvety texture to the soup.
We hope you will keep checking out our recipes at the Kumquat Connection, and we love to hear feedback!

Thanks,
Leigh