One of the great tragedies in life is that we often don’t truly appreciate people until they’re gone. As I reflected on my recent eulogy for our three cup Cuisinart, I realized that the same is often true of appliances – and that’s a shame.
That’s why I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge our immersion blender, a plucky little orange kitchen warrior that is often called upon to help out with a meal – and one that I am truly missing this week, as I try to make meals in a kitchen equipped with a Teflon-coated wok and a wooden thing that is neither spoon nor spatula. There is also a bowl.
Now here’s a fun (and germane) fact about vegetables: if they’re a little limp, any dish that calls for them to be pulverized probably won’t suffer. So when I see a vegetable that’s a little less turgid than I’d like it to be, one question I ask myself is: what would happen if I took my orange friend to it?
The most recent meal old orange and I made together was a refreshing cold cucumber soup – a favourite at our place that, I should hasten to point out, can be made with limp cucumbers. It’s one of the recipes in Bright & Bold collection on the 222 million tons app, but you don’t need to buy the app to get the recipe. It’s right here:
Cold cucumber-yogurt soup (serves 1)
Ingredients
- ½ cucumber (turgid or limp)
- 1 scallion (turgid or limp)
- 1 Tbsp cilantro
- ½ jalapeño pepper (turgid or limp)
- 1 small clove garlic
- 4 oz plain yogurt
- 1 tsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 tsp olive oil
- ¼ tsp salt, or to taste
Directions
- Chop the cucumber, scallion and cilantro coarsely.
- Remove the seeds and membranes from the jalapeño pepper, and chop coarsely.
- Crush the garlic.
- Using an immersion blender, blender or food processor, blend all of the above with the lime juice, olive oil and salt, until it looks like soup.
- Put the soup in the refrigerator to chill.
222 million tons 
I think I should start acknowledging kitchen tools :D
They do so much, and ask for so little in return. :)
Do you have a kitchenaide standing mixer? That is one kitchen appliance I never realized I could not love without until I had one!
Don’t have one of those (just a 30 year old powerhouse of a blender that only gets pulled out to make ginger beer, my orange buddy, and a tiny smoothie making device I got in Japan), though we’re looking around to replace the dead Cuisinart. I am certainly seeing a lot of appliances that I think I could fall in love with.
Love all my electric companions – Ninja high speed blender, Kitchenaid pulse mini-blender and countertop mixer/grinder/shredder. But it’s the curved paring knife and a 10″ chef’s knife I simply couldn’t live without. I don’t like bringing out the electronic gadgets if I don’t have to – it’s another flippin’ thing to clean up (or three or four) when I’m done! Salads are so clean and easy, and I can hand-cut most veggies with my eyes closed.
Love cuke soup. Very smooth and refreshing.
Totally get that – my knives hold a special place all their own in my heart (figuratively). Its only since we moved to the US (and to a bigger kitchen) that these other devices have started to play a bigger role in my cooking. They open up a lot of neat avenues that I’m having fun exploring.
Can’t wait to try it, thanks for the recipe.
Let me know how it turns out.
My favorite part of this post is when you say “So when I see a vegetable that’s a little less turgid than I’d like it to be…” :D Your cucumber soup recipe sounds good, I think it’ll be tzatziki consistency with the yogurt I normally buy, but the flavors sound really good!
Glad to know that sub-optimally turgid vegetables are an issue we all wrestle with.
I think you’ll be surprised by the texture of the soup once you blend everything –the water in the cucumbers thins it out more than you’d expect.
That’s right, I forgot that I squeeze a lot of the juice from the cucumbers before making tzatziki. Okay then, time to look for turgidly-challenged veggies!
It works with fresh veggies too. :)
Mmm, sounds yummy. :) I SO wish I had access to the iPad app and all of the yummy suggestions on it…one of these days!
Well, one of these days I hope that we’ll be able to share the content in a few different ways, so that the iPad won’t be a limitation. In the meantime, I can use this blog to share.
I never tried a cold soup, but may give this one a shot. It looks good.
I really like this one because it is so easy to make, and has a fun mix of flavours. It’s great when we have guests because I can make it ahead of time and just pop it in the fridge until everyone is ready to eat.
I like your anthropomorphising almost as much as your recipe. I need to start appreciating my trusty, non-argumentative kitchen friends too.
The wooden thing that is neither spoon nor spatula applauds you. It also thinks that I spend way too much time traveling alone, and that I may be losing my mind.
The wok agrees.
as my zero waster friend on attempting military zero—jenn, i appreciate meeting new people in the usual conscious circles, merci pour cette rencontre et encouragement, mon blog se trouve un peu seul dans son petit coin, je rejoins les ecrivains..bonjour..
yes i also find the immersion blender a quick and easy helper in salvaging the retinue of tired veges awaiting their turn in the cold box..ah, vichyssoise aux leftovers, miam-miam!
Merci, Nadine. I found your blog – and will be trying some of those soup recipes when the weather warms up. They sound wonderful.