Cream of Cucumber Soup

I really can’t imagine a cucumber making a good soup. I had real reservations about this recipe. I do like cucumber, but cold just as it is, I’m not sure about this one…

As you can see there’s no other veg in this, it’s just the cucumber! I usually have onions and potatoes in my soup for flavour and thickness. This recipe is using the egg yolk trick for thickening and I suppose that will keep the calories down in this one. Yes there is cream but only a couple spoonfuls!

I was a bit stumped at the first step, how on earth do you scald a cucumber! There is a whole chapter on cooking terms so here’s the definition of scalding..

This doesn’t actually help, the cucumber isn’t hairy, dirty and I assumed I’m not trying to remove the skin? So no idea what the purpose of that stage was!

I was using ham stock for this and I still have a supply of mace.

So boiled cucumber doesn’t look terribly appealing, hence the lack of photos. When I added the egg yolk the whole texture changed and it became very velvety looking. Still didn’t look thick enough for me but was looking a bit more appealing!

Well I was pleasantly surprised! I actually enjoyed this, and even my 6yr old daughter enjoyed it, although she was convinced it was pea soup! It’s certainly not a strong flavour, but it’s very pleasant. I definitely like my soups much thicker, I had to throw a slice of bread in to soak it up a bit!

Would I make this again? Maybe, I’d need to add a potato or two to make it thicker!