Avocado, Cucumber & Fennel Soup with Egg Salad Toast for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

So humid again this week, I am back to my cold soup kick and pinned several in the past couple of weeks. This Avocado,, Cucumber & Fennel Soup that was in the Washington Post's healthy recipe section caught my eye as I love all of the ingredients. To make it a bit more satisfying for work lunches, I made a batch of egg salad to eat on toast.

I kept the recipe pretty much the same however avocados were not looking ripe or good this weekend at the store. Instead, I picked up a small container of a simple guacamole and that worked just fine. There was also no dill fronds to be found at either local grocery store so I added some freeze-dried dill to the soup and used my fennel fronds to garnish.

Avocado, Cucumber & Fennel Soup 
Adapted from A Modern Way to cook by Anna Jones via TheWashingtonPost.com
(Makes 2-4 Servings) 

flesh from 1 ripe avocado (I used 1 cup simple guacamole)

1 large cucumber, chopped (unpeeled)

1/2 large fennel bulb (tough outer layer removed), cored and chopped

2 Tbsp Greek-style yogurt (may substitute coconut yogurt)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, or more as needed (from 1 large lemon)

1/4 cup ice cubes

1/2 cup cold water, or more as needed

1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt, or more as needed

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

(I added 1/2 tbsp freeze-dried dill) 

few fresh dill fronds (I used fennel fronds to decorate & added dill to the soup)

few sprigs of fresh basil

1/2 jalapeño pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup hulled, unsalted pumpkin seeds, toasted (pepitas; see NOTE)

extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil, for drizzling

 
Combine the avocado, cucumber, fennel, yogurt, lemon juice, ice, water, salt and pepper in a high-powered blender (such as a Vitamix); blend on high to form a completely smooth soup. If the soup seems too thick, add a little more water until it's your preferred consistency. Taste, and add more lemon juice and/or salt, as needed.

To serve, pour into bowls and top with dill, basil, jalapeño and the toasted pumpkin seeds, then drizzle with the oil. 

NOTE: Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 6 minutes, or until fragrant, popping slightly and lightly browned, shaking the pan to prevent scorching. Cool completely before using.

My egg salad accompaniment is just a simple egg salad with mayonnaise, a bit of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper (and capers!) on toasted sourdough. 

Notes/Results: This soup has such great flavor--the fennel, cucumber, avocado combination is so refreshing and both the lemon and yogurt add a bit of tang to the mix. It is rich and creamy and the topping--toasted pumpkin seeds, jalapeno, basil and fennel fronds keeps it from feeling like a green smoothie. It paired well with the creamy egg salad for lunch and is so quick and simple to make (no cooking except toasting the pumpkin seeds) that I will happily make it again.

Let's take a look into the Souper Sundays kitchen:

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor is back with Black Bean Chicken & Rice Soup and says, "Lots of cooking, grilling and creating in the kitchen. Here’s a start back to food blogging with for Deb’s Souper Sunday event. This is a simple Black bean and rice soup with chunks of chicken, onion and tomato added. Thin this with vegetable or chicken broth. I used chicken broth this time. Served with fried maduros (plantains), garlic toast and Sofrito from Goya (can't go wrong with Goya brand)."

Here at Kahakai Kitchen, I made a refreshing, tasty Snap Pea, Watermelon, Tomato & Feta Salad from Ellie Krieger to pair with a recent book tour review. It was perfectly refreshing, colorful, and a great mix of flavors and textures and screams summer in a bowl!

Mahalo to Tina for joining me this week!

About Souper Sundays:

Souper Sundays (going since 2008) now has a format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches at any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 
If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week!