the whole plate.

This past weekend, my mom brought me the largest cucumber I have ever seen.  I remember someone in Israel telling me that American produce scared him, and cucumbers should be small and eaten whole, not engineered to the size of a baseball bat.  Enter the bat:

This afternoon I used part of it in the most delicious, refreshing smoothie:

• ~ a cup of frozen papaya
• 1 c unsweetened almond milk
• 1″ cube ginger, peeled
• 1/4 baseball bat-sized cucumber
• big handful baby spinach

Blend blend blend to get this:

If you have a blender from say, Target, as I do, I would recommend chopping the cucumber and mincing the ginger first, just to help along the poor little machine.  The taste was smooth yet spicy – really wonderful for a warm summer day, before the skies opened up and drenched us.

Even though I got soaked in our daily rainstorm, I still decided on a cold soup for dinner.  My apartment doesn’t get a lot of air circulation, so I dried off quickly and got to work in the kitchen.

cucumber dill soup 

• 1 c cucumber, chopped
• 1/4 c fresh dill
• 2-3 T scallions
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1/2 c plain yogurt (I used Greek)
• 1/2 T evoo
• 1/4 t black pepper
• pinch salt
• pinch cayenne

Add all ingredients to the blender, and pulse away until smooth.

I added some hot sauce to mine and served it alongside crackers and a shockingly normal sized salad of white beans, cherry tomatoes, steamed spinach, olive oil, and Greek seasoning.  

This was such ideal summertime fare.  What’s your favorite warm-weather meal?

Related posts:

1. salsa verde soup.
2. soup’s on.
3. watermelon gazpacho.