4 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded, cut into large dice (about 3 cups)
1 serrano pepper, about the size of an adult woman’s baby finger
2 or more cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup broth,vegetable or chicken
2 cups plain Greek yogurt
Salsa

Combine the cucumbers, pepper, garlic, broth, and yogurt in a food processor, and pulse until smooth. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, and chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.

Place a dollop of salsa in each bowl of soup.

Source:  Huffington Post’s White Gazpacho

Background:  I think I’ve said this before:  I frequently make a dish even when I don’t have, can’t find, refuse to buy all the ingredients listed.  What sent me online looking for cucumber soup was having way too many cucumbers that were about to go bad.  I didn’t have vegetable broth so I used chicken.  (I did bring it to a boil then cooled it down before adding.  Why?  It just seemed the right thing to do.)

The recipe called for 2 small jalapeno chilis, not something I had handy, so I added about 1/8 tsp. of cayenne and figured the (not-homemade, which is what Huffington prescribes) chipotle salsa would make everything okay.  It did, according to Mike and Pearl.  The second time I made it, I added one serrano pepper.  That turned out well.  The point is that if you don’t get hung up on “White Gazpacho” (come on, we’re talking about cucumbers with yogurt here), then you’ll feel liberated enough to experiment.  Some things I won’t skimp on, however:  Greek yogurt, fresh (not Costco jar) garlic, and locally grown cucumbers, which are sweet and nearly seedless.