The sweltering days and warm evenings of a couple of weeks ago put me in the mood for making chilled soups. I said making, not cooking, because the beauty of cold soups is that they don’t heat up the kitchen and are easy to prepare. The only kitchen equipment needed is a blender. Here are my three favorite chilled soups, all made in the blender without cooking.
Chilled Cucumber Soup
Cucumbers and yogurt blend together to create this beautiful, pale green soup that is a perfect hot-weather opening course. Serve it in chilled shot glasses or demitasse cups.
Serves 4
• 2 pounds cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped into 1/2 inch squares
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 2 cups cold vegetable stock or water
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
*(optional) 1 tablespoon fresh dill
Put everything in a blender and process until smooth. Taste the seasonings and add more salt and pepper if desired.
Gazpacho
Making good gazpacho requires the best and ripest tomatoes, and now is the time of year when tomatoes are at their peak. There are endless variations and garnishes for gazpacho, but it is basically an uncooked tomato soup. For textural contrast, each bowl can be garnished with any combination of finely chopped cucumbers, onions, celery or red peppers.
Serves 4
• 2 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Cut the core from each tomato and cut a cross into the skin of the bottom. Dip tomatoes into boiling water for 10 seconds. Plunge into ice water and then lift peels off. Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze out seeds into a bowl. Save juice and strain out seeds. Place tomatoes, tomato juice, onion, cucumber, garlic, salt and vinegar in a blender and process on low for a few seconds only. Ladle into chilled bowls and drizzle each with olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.
Cold Avocado Soup
This elegant soup is highly addictive and very easy to make. If no yellow tomatoes are available, a red one is fine. This soup could be garnished with fine-chopped avocado, cucumber, onion and cilantro or fresh mint.
Serves 4
• 1 avocado, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
• 1 yellow tomato, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
*(optional) 1 Serrano chile, seeds and ribs removed and finely minced
Follow directions for peeling and seeding a tomato in the recipe for gazpacho. Add all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning.
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