Buttermilk Soup

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

The Soup Lady has an undependable internal thermostat and is usually the hottest tomato on the vine, but I'm pretty sure that this time, it's the weather. Summertime at last! How lovely that there are so many recipes for cold soups. Let's start with the best one of all: buttermilk and cucumber soup.

When the Soup Lady first joined Weight Watchers, Jean Neidich was still in charge and the food plan was extremely strict. Does anyone remember the recipe for Spagheti? The only two ingredients were canned bean sprouts and tomato juice. And calves' liver was a weekly requirement. As if. No wonder that this recipe was hailed as one of the few good things in your miserable dieting life.

Buttermilk Soup
1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
2 cups buttermilk
fresh dill
salt and pepper
scallions

Cut up the cucumber. Whirl it in a food processor until it
is finely chopped. Add the buttermilk. Season with dill, salt and pepper.
Use scallions or extra dill to garnish.
Serves 2.

It was , if I remember correctly, a milk and a vegetable.

There are other Buttermilk Soup recipes around, adding spinach or tomatoes. Whatever. This is the classic. The Soup Lady does not remove the seeds from the cucumber as I belive they are the coolest and most refreshing part. Whenever I make it, I recall being thankful that at least I didn't have to use the buttermilk to make the thin and insipid salad dressing they used to insist on.

Comments

[Eva]

I will make this soup this weekend. The Farmer's Market has wonderful cucumbers at grad student-appropriate prices, three pounds of which I used to make pickles a while back.

Gazpacho is my favorite summer soup.

I have been enjoying your plog for a few weeks now; keep up the excellent work!

Also: I understand your sentiments about the 1997 Joy of Cooking, but I made the most wonderful stew ever last week: the Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew, which can be found under the Sweet Potato heading in the Vegetables section. I eliminated the zucchini and meat, used a few whole dried red chiles instead of the pepper flakes, but otherwise followed the recipe, and I served it over whole wheat couscous. Mmmm.

[Mary K.]

This cold soup looks good. Its too hot now to think about cooking soup or anything else for a long time inside the house, but a cold soup sounds so refreshing.

[jadedju]

I've never recovered from that liver requirement. It was the low point of each week.

[james_jackson]

Isn't this a variation on a traditional Greek/Middle Eastern soup? Damn if I can't remember what it's called right now, but they use yogurt instead of buttermilk. And they use a thicker version of it as the sauce on falafel. Yes? No?

I can't believe I grew up in Georgia, with Scarlett O'Hara reincarnated as my MawMaw, making cuke sammychez & drinking buttermilk str8 from the bottle & she never made this. She has no computer, but I'm, for sure, sending her this recipe because she'll flip over it!

[Frances]

a very interesting site

[val marden]

the middle eastern soup mentioned is called turquoise I think

[hanna zagal]

Is the weight watcher founder jean neidrich still living and if she is where does she reside now?

[milo]

@Jesse_Jackson and val marden: i guess you're talking about tzatziki, a heavenly mix of greek yoghurt, cucumber and garlic, although I never saw it served as a soup, more as a sauce or a dip.

@soup lady: i'm a soup addict from italy, nice blog, will come back often! thanx!

[maggie rose]

I can't seem to lose on the points plan,but did well on the original plan. I first joined in 1967. Can't rememnber exacly what that entailed. Anyone????