Cucumber Gazpacho Soup

This looked so good - I was excited when I saw it!  The recipe is here.  Seemed perfect for summer and easy.  Plus, long English cucumbers and grapes were on sale at IGA this week so I decided to go for it.  I was really hoping mine would turn out with that pretty green colour like is on the recipe website above.  I am a cucumber fanatic.  I love finger tea sandwiches with them, plain cucumber sandwiches with mayo & pepper, slices soaked in vinegar with pepper, cucumber boats with shrimp or chicken salad, every salad imaginable, in drinking water, and pretty much anywhere else I can put them in food!

I followed the recipe though I used white wine vinegar instead of the regular white stuff.  I noticed the absence of pepper very much but I went with it.  I also garnished with some blue crab claw meat too as I had some leftover from last night.

I got the shrimp ready (Argentinian Red, 31 - 40 count) first.  I pan fried them in a little olive oil, butter, garlic and pepper (I would get my pepper fix one way or another!), then set them aside to cool.

I peeled all the cucumbers and seeded them after I cut them in half lengthwise.  I'm not sure where these cucumbers were from but they were not my usual "Hot House" English cucumbers and they didn't taste the same... sigh... they also had tons of seeds.  I really wish I would have looked closer when buying.  I cut these into about 3 inch pieces and put them in a blender.

I washed the grapes and put them in next.

I halved a clove of garlic, making sure there wasn't any green in the middle and put that in along with the vinegar, water, olive oil and kosher salt.  The blender was packed full to the top.  And then I zapped it up!  I tasted it and thought it could use a little more salt and vinegar.  I used a dash of apple cider vinegar this time.   I refrigerated it a couple of hours before I served.

I couldn't help but notice that mine was not as green as the recipe picture.  :)  I bought some sliced almonds and toasted these in a fry pan.

When it was cold, I zapped it again and then decided to strain the soup through a sieve into a juice jug before I poured for serving.

I lost about a cup or two but I liked the texture smooth and not foamy like it was.  I think straining it was a good idea.  I garnished with a swirl of olive oil, then topped with a couple of shrimp (they fell to the bottom so I hung one on the side), some crab and the almonds.

To me, this was awesome!!!  I totally loved it.  The toasted almonds were splendid.  I will make it again for sure.  I shared this out with co-workers for tomorrow so there was none left.  Next time, I'll keep more for myself.  :P