stuffed cucumber soup

various dates

The French kitchen serves cucumber soup most often as Vichyssoise: chilled and pureed with cream or yoghurt. I'll admit it's edible, but that's about all. It does not appeal to me at all.

This seems a much better choice.
The idea of stuffing cucumbers with ground meat seems to have originated in Asia. Not surprising really, considering that cucumbers have been cultivated in the Indian subcontinent for over 3,000 years.

Marielos really likes this soup, and I've been making it about once a month since I discovered this recipe.
I have tried to tweak the recipe in several ways. After about a dozen attempts, I found that:

a. first attempt: celery, potatoes & tomatillo

2019-09-21

This is very close to the traditional recipe. I've tried tweaking it a bit in later performances, but found that starting with a simple celery & potato soup gives the best results. Adding carrots is OK, tomatoes not so much.

The red color of the soup fat comes from the paprika powder that I added to the meatballs. It dissolves into the fat from the meatballs and that gives the soup extra flavor.

2019-09-21 

Pic1: stuffed cucumbers, meatballs
Pic2: stuffed cucumber soup

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 3 servings:

  • 3 cucumbers
    find the thickest ones
  • 1 qt. vegetable stock
    I made it here
  • S&P
  • optional:
    • 1 carrot, sliced

 

for the meat mix:
see other meatball recipes for alternatives
  • 1 lb. ground beef / pork / mix
    OR your favorite sausage meat
  • 1 onion, chopped fine
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 large egg
  • soy sauce
  • paprika

Directions

2019-09-21: base soup: 

Pic3: ingredients
Pic4: chop
Pic5: cook

Start the soup:

 

meat mix:

Pic6: ingredients
Pic7: egg
Pic8: mix

 

stuff cucumbers:

Pic9: peel
Pic10: core
Pic11: stuff

 

finishing up:

Pic12: cook
Pic13: fry
Pic14: all together now

b. attempt #2: tomato, tomatillo, onion, Brussels sprouts

2019-10-25

This soup was a really big success the 1st time, so I made it again. This time I added tomatoes and Brussels sprouts to the soup. It wasn't bad, but I found that the tomatoes distracted too much from the stuffed cucumbers to really do this justice. I liked the first one better. If you try both, let me know which one you prefer.

For the meat mix recipe, see cheesy meatballs in soubise sauce

2019-10-25 

Pic15: tomato, tomatillo, onion, Brussels sprouts
Pic16: all done
Pic17: served

c. stuffed cucumbers with pasta (a meal)

2019-10-26 (day 2)

Stuffed cucumber soup is really nice but you can also serve this without the broth; as a regular meal. The morning after, I was all but out of soup anyway, but I still had stuffed cucumbers and meatballs left over.

  • I cooked some pasta, and used the pasta broth to warm up the leftovers.
  • I served a few cukes with that pasta broth, (Pic18)
  • I served the remainder with the pasta. (Pic19)
    The combination of pasta with cucumbers was certainly a novelty for me. Quite nice.

2019-10-26

Pic18: the pasta broth & stuffed cucumber soup
Pic19: stuffed cucumbers served over pasta