Spicy Cucumber Soup with Yogurt by Sy

This is a wonderful Cold Yogurt Soup for a hot summers day! Try chopping up the cucumbers very fine or leave them on the chunky side! It you chop up the cucumbers real fine and add more water, you then have a good "Yogurt Drink" instead of a soup! Also, other variations for this Cold Yogurt Soup are using chicken stock, buttermilk, sour cream, touch of tabasco... Enjoy!

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 3 -4  cups yogurt, rich creamy type (not the non-fat yogurt variety)
• 1⁄2 cup sour cream
• 1  cup water
• 2  large cucumbers, peeled & seeds scooped out and cup up into small pieces
• 1  scallion, chopped up finely
• 1  clove garlic, chopped finely
• 1 -2  tablespoon lemon juice (If using a tangy type yogurt, eliminate or use 1 tablespoon)

Directions

1. Put cucumbers in a bowl or colander and sprinkle with salt and toss; let stand for about 15-30 minutes
2. Put yogurt, sour cream and about 1 cup water into a bowl and blend till smooth (Like the consistency of buttermilk)
3. Add cucumber, scallion, garlic, lemon, jalapeno pepper to yogurt mixture. Use a motorized hand blender to chop the cucumber finer and leaving some small chunks; not to fine though. (A Braun hand mixer-chopper works well for blending the yogurt in step #2 and this step #3
4. Put into refrigerator to chill
5. Serve cold and topped with any combo of fresh dill, mint leaves, chivesà Mrs. Dash spices and/or salt to taste.