Cucumber soup

Sunday 8.48pm

The wind has turned southerly here and it cold, showery and blustery. Just the weather for a . . . . chilled soup. Well not actually but it was lovely and warm yesterday when the idea got stuck in my head so I'm making it anyway. I saw the recipe in a magazine a few weeks ago but cannot remember any of it except that the base was leeks and a potato (I think). The main ingredient is cucumber of course which can be eaten raw and so can be added right at the end so most of the work is in making a nice base that will set off the cucumber.

- Start by roughly chopping a leek and setting it to cook slowly in some olive oil.
- I served mine with a salsa made with a tomato, a couple of spring onions and a green chilli all chopped smallish and stirred together in a bowl with the juice of half a lemon, If you want to do the same do so now so the flavours get a chance to mix and blend while the soup is cooking.
- Once the leek is soft, peel and chop a small potato and add it to the leeks along with a pint and a quarter of vegetable stock and leave to simmer gently.
- Oh and save a little stock and use it to soak a big handful of ground almonds in a bowl as well for later.
- Peel and roughly chop a big cucumber.
- Once the potato is soft, mine took twenty minutes, take it off the heat.
- Put the ground almonds into a liquidiser along with a couple of ladlefuls of the soup. liquidise until smooth and then add the cucumber and the rest of the soup and continue to blend until smoothish.

Now I have never actually eaten a cold soup before and I have to admit I didn't this time either but it was certainly nice served warm along with some brown bread and butter.

The forecast for tomorrow is 19 degrees - back to Spring again!