Curried Avocado Soup

This is a great soup. You will read a reference to a food mill. Ignore it steadfastly and use the blender. Works great. Mechanization will win out every time. (Or almost.) I made the soup after the cheesecake. It took maybe half an hour, and then sat demurely on the back of the stove waiting to be warmed up. It's really good. It does not taste particularly of avocado. Delilah, my friend from school, thought it was asparagus soup. Liz thought it was spinach soup.
But when supermarket has ten avocados for $10, this is definitely the recipe to try. One thing more, when it says don't let it boil, the author really means don't let it boil. Something funny happens to avocados when they are overcooked. They get bitter.

Curried Avocado Soup

1/2 cup finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon or more curry powder
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
2 ripe avocados
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Cook the onion in the butter until wilted. Sprinkle with the curry powder, add the broth and simmer five minutes. Stir in the heavy cream and simmer five minutes more.
2 Peel each avocado and remove the seed. Put the flesh through a sieve or food mill. (Not unless you love work.) Or blend the avocado in an electric blender, adding one half to one cup of the broth.
3. Stir the avocado into the soup and stir in the lemon juice. Heat thoroughly but do not boil. Add salt, black pepper and a little cayenne. Serve in hot soup bowls with a generous dab of the sour cream on top of each serving.
Makes six to eight servings.