chilled avocado and crab soup

In the June issue of F&W, there's an article about "great ways to use guacamole". Normally if I make guacamole, there's never any leftovers that I need to worry about, but since I'm always looking for ways to eat more avocado, I really liked this recipe. Starting with a base of guacamole, you can puree it into this soup, which is actually both creamy and airy (yes, airy -- check out the bubbles in the picture) because of the addition of buttermilk.

Grocery list: 2 avocados, 1 lime, 1 clove garlic, 1 jalapeno, 2 scallions, cilantro, buttermilk, 1 bottle clam juice, and about 1/3 pound of jumbo lump crab meat.


Start by making a basic guacamole. The recipe in F&W suggests roasting the scallions, jalapeno and garlic first, then mashing everything into the avocado. Since I was only making this for the soup, I went with as little effort as possible, mincing everything (note -- I only used about 1/3 of the jalapeno - a whole one per 2 avocados would be pretty spicy). I squeeze half the lime into the mixture along with a generous amount of sea salt, and some chopped cilantro.



Next, put the guacamole base (should be about 1 cup) into a blender with 1 cup cold buttermilk, 3/4 cup bottled clam juice (one bottle is 8 ounces usually), 1/2 cup ice water, and the rest of the lime juice. Puree until smooth, then season with salt and pepper. Pour the soup into bowls and top with jumbo lump crab meat. The recipe also calls for a creme fraiche and fried tortilla strip garnish, but the soup was rich enough that I left it out.