Is It Chilled Yet?

LITTLE or no cooking is one way to keep the kitchen cool in the summer, but if the food you produce is cool (and delicious, of course), that’s a real plus.

Cold soups are a common solution. It’s difficult to imagine one simpler than this one, and impossible to imagine one richer and creamier.

And yet there’s no cream. (O.K., there’s milk.) The key — not exactly a secret — is avocado, as rich and fat-filled (but it’s good fat!) a fruit as there is.

In fact, the two main ingredients in this no-cook, serve-cold soup are so rich that it takes a fair amount of lime juice to balance things out. (Lemon juice, orange juice or a blend would also be good.)

Though it’s not even close to essential, you can add not only acidity but textural contrast with some chopped tomato or halved cherry or grape tomatoes. What I really like in here, though, is some small (or chopped) shrimp. Along with cilantro, they not only give the soup a pleasantly Mexican character but turn it into a meal.

It helps to make the soup a couple of hours in advance, so that it is good and cold before serving. That in turn raises two other issues, both minor.

Generally speaking, cold food needs more salt than hot food does, so be sure to taste before serving, or at least put a saltshaker on the table.

And it would defeat the purpose of making a cold soup by serving it in bowls at room temperature, when room temperature is approaching 100 degrees. Chill the bowls in the freezer or with ice before filling with soup.