Are you craving something warm for dinner? Soups to me are like warm pots of hugs created to make us feel loved. Whether where you live, the weather is dull & dreary or bright and glowing, soups seem to be the solution

We come home, tired & hungry. We sit, I pour us a drink & put the stove on to boil the milk for that coffee. It’s dinner time, almost. I see two almost brown soft avocados in the wooden bowl on the kitchen breakfast bar. What can we do with avocados? A soup sounds nice , a soup sounds warm. I gather the avocados and remove the soft flesh.

What will go with this? I need some herbs. I look around at our kitchen garden nurtured by Vivek , and there is the fresh sprig of ‘purple basil’ in the pink pot with its pretty little purple flowers. I grab both; the leaves & the tiny flowers. A carton of fresh cream is sitting in the fridge, this gets added to the recipe too.

I make the soup, we sit at our dark wood table,  with the open views from the french doors of our flat, in the warm light, we dunk in chunks of baguette in the soup, that I found in the pantry.

This ‘Warm Avocado & Purple Basil’ soup is so simple. And there are only 3 steps.

The avocados when cooked for awhile lends a nutty flavour. You can replace the Purple basil with green basil.

Recipe:

Makes Soup for 2 people

Ingredients:

2 medium ripe avocados, diced
1 big handful of Basil .
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt (I use Himalayan pink rock salt , replace with normal salt if you don’t have it)
Juice of one lemon
1/3 cup heavy cream (if you want to make it vegan, avoid using this completely)
3 and 2/3 cup water (or enough to reach desired consistency)
1 tablespoon good olive oil
Butter for cooking (use your imagination)
Pinch of cumin powder & pepper
OPTIONAL GARNISHES
Crusty bread, toasted or grilled (I get a good Baguette)
Cream and good olive oil for drizzling

Method:
1.Heat the butter in a pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until it’s browned.
2. Add the water, lime juice and avocados in the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 7-9 minutes. Add the basil (roughly chopped or torn, don’t cook too much after adding the basil)
3.Transfer to the blender and blend until smooth. Return the mixture to the pot. Add the heavy cream, cumin, salt and pepper (if you want it vegan, don’t add cream)
Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add optional garnishes and serve warm.