{"id":872,"date":"2014-08-26T21:30:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T02:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/?p=639"},"modified":"2015-11-06T15:07:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T21:07:38","slug":"avocado-advocate-guacamole-soup-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=872","title":{"rendered":"Avocado Advocate: Guacamole Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D872&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><div id=\"attachment_645\" style=\"width: 390px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Avocadoes-Plus-006.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-645\" class=\"wp-image-645\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Avocadoes-Plus-006-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Alligator Pair\" width=\"380\" height=\"285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Avocadoes-Plus-006-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Avocadoes-Plus-006-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Avocadoes-Plus-006.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-645\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alligator Pair<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I grew up eating avocadoes.\u00a0 My grandfather was an orange rancher in Orange County back when there still were oranges in the OC.\u00a0 The orange juice from his trees is still the best I\u2019ve ever tasted, but it was the few avocado trees he had in his orchard that I think of more often.<\/p>\n<p>Snacks at my grandparents\u2019 house regularly consisted of mashed avocadoes spread across saltines with a few sprinkles over the top.\u00a0 Unlike mine, my grandma\u2019s style was not at all spicy, but that\u2019s the avocado taste I\u2019ve always loved\u2014in salads, sandwiches, and in soup.\u00a0 It\u2019s mild and rich and has a buttery melt-in-your mouth texture without excessive oiliness.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also the basis for this week\u2019s recipe: Guacamole Soup.\u00a0 As you\u2019d expect from my pro-avocado leanings, I prefer my guacamole mild so the avocado shines through.\u00a0 That means using a mild salsa and sometimes forgoing the lime.\u00a0 If you\u2019d prefer it spicier, that\u2019s your decision, but you\u2019ll have to face final judgment on your own.<\/p>\n<p>As always with avocadoes, \u201cthe ripeness is all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>FYI:<\/strong><em> Shakespeare was actually talking about avocadoes when he gave that line to Lear.\u00a0 Although avocadoes had yet not made it to England by that time.\u00a0 Their absence was enough to drive the old king around the bend.\u00a0 It could do the same to any of us.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The soup starts with avocadoes, ripe avocadoes, which are always a joy to work with.\u00a0 I should know. I\u2019ve been separating avocado meat from its skin almost as long as I\u2019ve been allowed to hold a knife. The process is simple, as I detail below for the uninitiated.<\/p>\n<p>The first step is to slice the avocado (sometimes called an alligator pear for the color and texture of its skin) in half. You do this by cutting through the flesh to the pit, but not <em>into the pit<\/em>.\u00a0 Then you turn the fruit (technically a large berry) in your hand and extend the cut all the way around to where you started.\u00a0 Next you twist the two halves in opposite directions and, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">if it\u2019s ripe<\/span>, the sections will easily pull apart leaving the whole pit in one half and an egg-shaped hole in the other.\u00a0 After that you hold the half with the pit in one hand and slap the edge of your knife into the pit hard enough so it sticks. (Careful!) \u00a0Then you turn the knife like a lever along the flat edge of the fruit and the pit twists right out.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve got a little salt and a spoon, you could call it quits right here and eat it right out of the shell.\u00a0 You can also use the spoon to scoop the avocado out of the peel, in chunks or as one big piece.<\/p>\n<p>To make the soup, you take the eight peeled &amp; pitted avocadoes and combine them with the onion, salsa (very mild, please, you won\u2019t regret it), vegetable and tomato stocks and puree it all together.\u00a0 You don\u2019t even have to simmer it if you don\u2019t want to.\u00a0 I did, but the heart of this soup is fresh, so I didn\u2019t overdo it.<\/p>\n<p>Then you serve it at room temperature garnished with crushed tortilla chips.<\/p>\n<p>In retrospect, maybe I should have garnished this soup with crushed saltines.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what my grandma would have done.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Guacamole Soup<br \/>\n<\/strong>(serves 8-12)<br \/>\n8 avocadoes, (~1 \u00bd quarts)<br \/>\n2 \u00bd cups onions, chopped<br \/>\n2 \u00bd cups tomato salsa, mild. Mild, mild, mild!<br \/>\n1 quart vegetable stock<br \/>\n1 quart tomato stock, aka caldo de tomate (You can also just use two quarts veg. stock as this \u00a0stuff has chicken in it)<br \/>\n1 cup cilantro, minced<br \/>\nSalt &amp; pepper, to taste<br \/>\nTortilla chips, crushed<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Peel and seed the avocadoes then add them to the pot with the onions, salsa and stock.<\/li>\n<li>Puree the soup with an immersion or bar blender (I was in CA when I made this so the bar blender was my only option)<\/li>\n<li>At this point I brought the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes, but you can skip this step if you want a fresher tasting soup.<\/li>\n<li>Finely chop the cilantro and stir it into the soup along with the seasoning.<\/li>\n<li>Serve with crushed tortilla chips sprinkled on top and you\u2019re ready to go.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Image Credit: An avocado, this one\u2019s a Hass, which is about all you can find anymore.\u00a0 The one\u2019s I grew up with were Fuertes.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you know that the French word for <em>avocado<\/em> is the same as the word for lawyer? \u00a0Please don\u2019t make the mistake of using lawyers in this recipe.\u00a0 Although, if it turns out well, I\u2019d love to hear a comment about it. Regardless, I\u2019ll be reading <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and<\/span> responding.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I grew up eating avocadoes.\u00a0 My grandfather was an orange rancher in Orange County back when there still were oranges in the OC.\u00a0 The orange juice from his trees is still the best I\u2019ve ever tasted, but it was the few avocado trees he had in his orchard that I think of more often. Snacks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,4,126,64,30,115,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avocado","category-cold","category-no-dairy-products","category-herbs","category-tomatoes","category-tortillas","category-vegetarian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2249,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions\/2249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}