Chilled Cucumber-Avocado Soup

On a hot summer day, a nice refreshing cold soup can really do wonders. For this recipe, we put the juicer to work on our fresh, local cucumbers creating a cucumber juice which is the perfect base for this vegan starter.

Serves 8 small starter portions (about 4 oz each)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup scallions, minced

• 1-1/2 cups fresh cucumber juice (about 2 English cucumbers)

• 1/2 cup freshly juiced Ruby Red grapefruit (about 1/2 grapefruit)

• 1 cup vegetable stock

• 1-1/2 cups heirloom tomatoes (red and yellow add nice color), diced

• 3 ripe avocados (peel and cube 2 avocados, peel and rough chop 3rd avocado to purée with liquid)

• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

• salt and pepper to taste

• thinly sliced radishes for garnish

Instructions:

1. Place minced scallions in a bowl and toss with a pinch of salt. Let sit for 20 minutes then rinse

2. Combine cucumber juice, grapefruit juice, vegetable stock, onions (after rinsed) and an avocado in the blender and purée

3. Add salt, pepper and paprika and adjust seasoning to your taste

4. Add chopped tomatoes and avocado to the purée and chill

5. Once chilled, serve garnished with sliced radishes