The saying “cool as a cucumber” has the ring of truth to it, as this refreshing vegetable has the ability to cool an overheated body on the most torrid of summer days. A chilled cucumber soup sounds appealing, but most recipes turn out quite bland. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

• Pureeing the cucumbers into a base of sour cream and buttermilk makes the most of the subtle cucumber flavor. Add a diced cucumber for texture.
• Accent the soup with a little Dijon mustard and garlic. Make sure to mince the garlic very fine or press it through a garlic press so that it completely blends into the soup.

Adding a pound of small cooked shrimp makes this soup a perfect main course for a luncheon or light summer dinner. This soup should be eaten the same day it is made.

I just use regular cucumbers and it’s just fine.

This is good and has a nice flavor. Served with Buttermilk Biscuits (http://recipething.com/recipes/show/12836).

These were very good and pretty easy to make. They didn’t rise as much as I thought, but that may have been old baking powder. Nice with soup. REMEMBER to handle the dough as little as possible to get a soft flaky biscuit.

We used chicken broth instead, half a bag of mixed vegetables instead of the peas and put them in with the rice and tomatoes, and used Instant Brown Rice from Wegman’s. This was very good and made a healthy amount.