Raw Spicy Coconut Avocado Soup in Bell Pepper Bowls

Most of my thinking time is filled with being nostalgic. I’ve always been like this, even as a kid. These days I am nostalgic about my country (ok, this is nothing new, I’ve been a nostalgic immigrant for the past ten years, it has become a part of my character). Even when I was a kid I was nostalgic about things I read in books (like the Greek legends I knew by heart). For the past few days, though, a new memory has surfaced and it does not leave me alone. It is of this cartoon I used to watch as a kid, after the fall of the Eastern Block, called “Perrine Monogatari”, a Japanese cartoon. The story does not matter but what does matter is that the main character in that cartoon, a poor and plain teenage girl (no pretty dresses, no magical sparkly powers), was living in the forest for some time in a wild and “organic” environment. She had several animals as friends, whom she refrained from eating, of course. She even carved her own fork and spoon out of forest wood and she was using leaves as plates. I remember marvelling at all this and wishing I could live like that someday. For the whole time the show lasted, my favourite game was “Perrine” – pretending I was living in the forest like a hippie. Fast forward some 20 years…those images are still with me and…yeah, I still play “Perrine”. So today, following that impulse, I made a raw soup and I carved my own bowls, out of bell peppers. Beside “Perrine Monogatari”, I was also inspired by a cooking challenge over at Lisa’s Kitchen entitled No Croutons Required. The challenge for this month is to prepare a vegetarian soup or salad using hot peppers (I used cayenne and green jalapeños). It works great for me because I’m also detoxing while doing a liver flush (my first ever!) and I am eating mostly raw this week, so lots of raw soups and salads. So here is my entry for the challenge and for kindling my nostalgia of the forest-living-hippie cartoon character.

Raw Spicy Coconut Avocado Soup in Bell Pepper Bowls:

4 large bell peppers, preferably of different colours (when you buy them, choose the ones that can stand on their own on a flat surface)
3 cups raw organic coconut milk
2 ripe avocados (there should be no born spots on the green flesh)
2 Tbps chopped basil
lemon juice from a lemon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 Tbps extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic (optional)
1/2 jalapeño pepper (I used half of a bigger one, you can use a whole pepper if it is small)
1 tsp ginger
salt to taste
1 tsp curry
1 or 2 thinly sliced mushrooms for garnish
1 Tbps chives, for garnish
more basil for garnish

After you carefully cut the top of the bell peppers and discard the seeds inside, place the pepper bowls on a plate, in wait of the soup. For the soup – you put all the ingredients other than the chives, thinly sliced mushrooms and the basil for garnish in the blender. You blend for about 1 minute or until you have a light green thick soup. This soup can be served at room temperature, chilled (which I prefer) or slightly warmed (only slightly though, otherwise some nutrients will die and it won’t go well with the edible bowls). You pour the soup into the bowls, garnish each of them with the mushrooms, chives and basil, and serve them for lunch. After you are done with the soup, you can enjoy the delicious bowl (has a lot of vitamin C!). This recipe makes enough to fill 4 large bell pepper bowls.

Now in all seriousness – I think that nature can provide us with everything that we need to live happy, fulfilling lives. Yes, I would not be sharing this with you right now if I lived in the forest and I didn’t have technology and all but perhaps I would invite you over for lunch instead. I’m an idealist.

H. D. Thoreau, whom I very much admire, wrote this book about his experiment of living in the woods for two years. I enjoyed reading it and you might find it interesting if you are even slightly the wood-living type.

This is a charged post so I will end it with a deep quote by H. D. Thoreau:

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” (Walden, Chapter 2)

Advertisement