Cream of Cucumber Soup
This simple summer soup has a delicate and sophisticated flavor and is easy to digest and mild enough for fussy eaters. If you like cream of celery, you’ll love this soup. This is good hot or chilled; making it well suited for a picnic or work day lunch. This is an ideal use for those over-grown garden cucumbers. For a touch of spring green color, retain about 10% of the peel on the cucumbers, if they are not waxed.
Ingredients
1½ lbs. organic cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
3-4 oz. diced onion (~ ½ onion) or ½ oz. chopped chives
4 T butter or ghee or part chicken fat saved from a roasted chicken
3½ cups rich homemade chicken broth (can use the pan juices from a roasted chicken)
1 tsp. Real salt (to taste)
white pepper (to taste)
1 C cream or 1 ½ cups milk or coconut milk
2 egg yolks (opt.)
¼ C chopped fresh chives (opt.)
Instructions
Sauté the cucumber and onion in butter or ghee for 10 minutes.
Add the chicken broth and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
Puree the soup; season with salt and pepper. If using coconut milk, add it now.
Just before serving, add the cream or milk and egg yolks to hot soup that is off the heat. Do not heat the soup once the cream and egg yolks are added.
Garnish with chives and/or diced radish.
If eggs are not allowed, place a teaspoon raw butter on top of each serving before garnishing with chives.
Variation: Dill Soup. Add ½ C chopped fresh dill at the simmer stage.
Hi Sally,
I just found you recently on YouTube. I am so excited to start a low oxalate diet. I had a kidney stone last November and have been worried about getting another. I notice on some sites they say to peel cucumbers and apples and on others there is no mention of this. In your recipe you peel the cucumbers. Is this for aesthetic reasons? What is your recommendation for eating cucumbers and apples raw?
Thank you,
Linda Logan
Hi Linda,
I’m glad to know you’re moving to a safer low oxalate diet! Peels can be hard to digest, especially cucumber peels. Also, skins and seeds tend to high in lectins which can cause serious gut damage. In some foods, skins and seeds have the most concentrated levels of oxalate too. Cucumbers are low in oxalate, apples vary by type. For your digestion, always peel cucumbers. Cooked is always better when it comes to plant foods. Cucumbers make great soups, and can replace celery in recipes You can also bake peeled cucumbers and serve with butter, dill, and lemon juice or vinegar. Baked whole apples and apple sauce are good examples of cooked apples.