From gazpacho to beetroot soup: 10 recipes for cold soups for hot days
Olga Lukinskaya
In the heat you want food to be light and refreshing. - and the whole meal can sometimes be replaced with a few slices of watermelon or a portion of ice cream. And in the summer we remember about cold soups: they are easy to cook, they are really refreshing, help to compensate for the loss of fluid and minerals (this is especially true if you exercise outdoors in the heat) and allow you to keep your diet varied and balanced. In this collection - ten recipes for cold soups for hot summer.
Beet gazpacho
This bright fuchsia soup is great for lunch on hot days; unlike traditional beetroot, you will need a blender to make it. Beets can be cooked in advance - then it will take only fifteen minutes to prepare the soup itself.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Pour the beets in a saucepan with water, bring to a boil and cook for 45-60 minutes over low heat, then cool, without draining the water.
Peel the beets and place in a blender, leaving one small root vegetable (it is useful for decorating the finished soup). Add to the blender two glasses of liquid in which the beets were cooked; water or vegetable broth can be used instead. Add half of the chopped onion, garlic, two sliced cucumbers, salt, pepper, vinegar and most of the dill. Grind to a smooth consistency. Add spices to taste and refrigerate.
When serving, sprinkle with slices of beet, cucumber, avocado, dill; Sprinkle with olive oil, sour cream or yogurt.
Pea and Avocado Soup
Sweet peas - one of the best seasonal products of the summer, which you can buy on the market or grow on the windowsill. Combination with avocado will give the soup the desired consistency, and mint - a refreshing taste.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add onion and cook until soft, 4-6 minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Add peas and cook for 4-6 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the spinach and mint leaves and allow to cool slightly.
Add avocado and lemon juice to the soup and grind in portions in a blender until complete homogeneity (it will take about 2 minutes for each portion). Season with salt and pepper. Cool for at least 4 hours; if the soup is too thick, you can dilute it with water.
Serve, sprinkled with fresh peas and mint leaves and garnished with yogurt.
Gazpacho with lemon shrimps
In Spain, this traditional dish is served only in summer, and in the shops there is ready gazpacho in bags, which can be drunk from a glass, like thick tomato juice with spices. This recipe is traditionally vegan gazpacho supplemented with shrimp - a little protein does not hurt.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Cut 8 cherry tomatoes into quarters, add an equal amount of sliced cucumber, pepper and onion to them and set aside.
Place the remaining tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers onions, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, garlic and canned tomatoes in a blender. Grind to a smooth consistency and place in the refrigerator for half an hour.
In a bowl, fold the shrimp, add a tablespoon of oil, lemon juice, chopped garlic, pepper and salt. Heat the pan with a non-stick coating over medium heat and place the shrimp on it. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Pour gazpacho in 4 bowls, add 5 shrimps and a portion of the mixture of chopped vegetables to each.
Okroshka on kvass
Perhaps it is okroshka that comes to mind first when it comes to summer soups. We offer the most traditional option - on bread kvass and with doctor sausage.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Cook potatoes and eggs. Cool, peel and cut into cubes.
Cut the sausage, cucumbers, radishes and greens.
Mix ingredients, salt, pepper and put in plates.
Pour cold kvass and serve. To taste, sprinkle with herbs and add sour cream.
Sorrel soup
Another dish, familiar to many since childhood. This soup is easy to prepare and quick; The main thing is not to forget to add sorrel to the shopping list when you are going to the market.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Cook hard boiled eggs, cool and chop finely.
Disassemble and rinse well sorrel. Cut, pour boiling water and cook for no longer than five minutes. To cool.
Finely chop cucumbers and green onions, mix with eggs, salt and put in broth with sorrel.
Add sugar, salt, herbs and sour cream and serve.
Tarator
This soup is a traditional Bulgarian summer dish. The tarator is made from yogurt, cucumbers and garlic and resembles both salted dairy beverages like ayran and Greek tzatziki sauce.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
In a deep bowl combine the cucumbers, garlic, salt, butter and dill.
Pour the yogurt, mix. Add water and mix well so that the yogurt is evenly diluted. Try and add more salt if necessary.
Sprinkle with walnuts and cool to serve at least half an hour.
Carrot Ginger Soup
This spicy soup can be served both cold and hot. In winter, burning spices will be more pronounced in hot soup and will additionally help to warm up, and in summer, when served cold, the taste of fresh carrots in combination with ginger and cinnamon will be felt perfectly.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes and cook for 1-2 minutes, without turning to brown.
Add carrots, salt, cinnamon and turmeric, cook 1-2 minutes more, stirring. Pour water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for 20-25 minutes until the carrots are very soft.
Grind the soup in a blender.
Cool for at least 4 hours.
Pour in plates, add a tablespoon of yogurt or coconut milk to the center of each, sprinkle with herbs, sea salt, freshly ground pepper.
Sweet Corn Soup
For a bright yellow soup you will need yellow ingredients: corn, pepper, and even cherry tomatoes of the appropriate color. You can use corn kernels from a tin can, but it is better to take fresh cobs.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Holding the cob at an angle over a deep bowl, cut off the seeds from it (and keep a handful to decorate the finished soup). The liquid protruding in place of the slices (“juice”), using the blunt side of the knife, is added to the same bowl.
Place the corn and other ingredients in a blender and grind. Cool for at least an hour right in the bowl of the blender.
Before serving, turn on the blender for another 30 seconds. Add spices if necessary.
Pour into plates, decorate with corn kernels, olive oil and greens.
Zucchini soup with coconut milk
Zucchini seems like a rather boring vegetable, and it's great that you can make something interesting out of it - for example, this cold summer soup with mint-coconut flavor.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and hot peppers and cook until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook another 2 minutes.
Add zucchini and mint, cook for 4-5 minutes, salt and pepper.
Add the broth and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat, cool and grind in a blender.
Pour the cream soup into a saucepan, add coconut milk, add spices to taste. After that, cool for several hours.
Melon Soup with Lavender
Perhaps this is the most unusual dish in this collection, which can be considered a soup, a dessert, and a culinary experiment. This soup is cooked in a couple of minutes, but you have to run for the ingredients.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Place melon, coconut water, lime and lavender in a blender and beat until smooth.
Cool and serve, sprinkled with berries and mint leaves.
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