Green Goddess Soup with Jumbo Lump Crabmeat

By LRay

Southern Living, May 2016, page 32.

At her popular Los Angeles dinner parties, entertaining columnist Julia Reed's good friend Suzanne Rheinstein, an interior designer and New Orleans native, often serves a first course consisting of a generous scoop of jumbo lump blue crab napped with green goddess dressing. Reed now serves what she thinks of as "Suzanne's Green Goddess Crabmeat" a lot, but sometimes an entire serving of crab is too much. Instead, she inverted the dish by making a soup out of green goddess ingredients and using a few lumps of crab as garnish only. Even without the crab, the soup (inspired by a recipe from another pal, Nora Etheridge) is pretty great.

Ingredients

• 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
• 1 ripe medium avocado, peeled, pitted, and quartered
• 6 scallions, including about 1 inch of the green stem, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1/4 cup Italian parsley leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon tarragon leaves, plus 1 tablespoon minced for garnish
• 1 tablespoon chives, roughly chopped, plus 1 tablespoon minced for garnish
• 1 cup unsalted chicken stock
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat

Details

Servings 8
Adapted from myrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preparation

1. Place the cucumber, avocado, scallions, parsley, tarragon leaves, and chopped chives into a food processor. Process for about 10 seconds. Add the chicken stock, sour cream, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne. Process for another 10 seconds, until the mixture is smooth and well blended.

2. Pour the soup into a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, ladle into soup bowls or plates, garnish with a couple of lumps of the crabmeat, and sprinkle with the minced tarragon and minced chives.

NOTE: I like to serve this soup accompanied by thin slices of baguette brushed with melted butter, toasted, and sprinkled with sea salt. Make enough to offer with the Shrimp Malacca.

1. Place the cucumber, avocado, scallions, parsley, tarragon leaves, and chopped chives into a food processor. Process for about 10 seconds. Add the chicken stock, sour cream, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne. Process for another 10 seconds, until the mixture is smooth and well blended.

2. Pour the soup into a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, ladle into soup bowls or plates, garnish with a couple of lumps of the crabmeat, and sprinkle with the minced tarragon and minced chives.

NOTE: I like to serve this soup accompanied by thin slices of baguette brushed with melted butter, toasted, and sprinkled with sea salt. Make enough to offer with the Shrimp Malacca.