I think we all remember Ice Ice Vichyssoise’s fall from grace back in the 90’s. He totally lied about his background – telling everyone he came from a creamy family in the soup hood. Truth is, Ice Ice Vichyssoise has no cream. Nope. No dairy. And the truth is, he’s beginning to recognize his natural talents. Why lie, Ice Ice? You are cool and refreshing. You have carrots and garlic scapes. Heck, most people don’t even know what a garlic scape is! But not you – you embrace the scape! And you are so smooth and refreshing – perfect for a hot summer day. Ice, Ice Vichyssoise, welcome back. We’ve missed you.

Many people ask how we make creamy soups without butter or cream. We answer that we have our ways. But so many people have requested old fashioned creamy soups, that we decided to use cream. Just this once. NOT!!!! Ladies and gents, meet our secret weapon… CASHEW CREAM!! It’s full of protein, magnesium, and fiber. Cashew cream fakes out even the most avid of creamy soup lovers. Did you know that cashews have the lowest fat content of all the nuts, and that 75% of their fat is the heart-healthy unsaturated kind? Did you know that when combined with asparagus it makes an AWESOME soup, that can be eaten hot or cold?? In a recent taste test, soup eaters could not tell the difference between this soup and the famous creamy asparagus soup served downtown at Le Upscale Restaurant De Francois Fancy-frois. Haven’t been there? It’s kind of fancy. So throw out the Lactaid pills and dive into this soup for the ultimate creamy asparagus experience! It’s not just a soup. It’s an experience. Just go with it…

I recently sat down with Elizabeth Gilbert to discuss the new movie coming out based on her best-selling book,Eat, Pray, Love. Once she found out that I was a soup-maker, she felt free to tell me the REAL story of her book. Basically what happened was that she stumbled upon this amazing gazpacho recipe that was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. You take blanched almonds and puree them together with sweet, juicy honeydew, freshly baked bread, a bit of garlic, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar and VOILA – addictive gazpacho. “This isn’t salad in a bowl, like regular gazpacho,” she confided in me. “It’s so naturally sweet – but complex because of the almonds and bread. Plus – a gazpacho that is rich in vitamin C and has protein! I mean, it’s perfect!!” Long story short – she developed an addiction. At first she started covering it up by throwing honeydew gazpacho parties. But then she couldn’t bear to share it with anyone. Her blender broke and she would just stab at the bowl with a fork. Her husband left her because he couldn’t bear to compete for her attention with a seasonal melon. In order to break her addiction she went to meditate in India and then fell in love in Fiji. To this day, every time she strolls through the farmers market in August, she breaks out in a cold sweat near the melons. Yikes!