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10 Cooling chilled soup recipes

BY Helen Best-Shaw

1st Jan 2015 Recipes

10 Cooling chilled soup recipes

Forget slaving over a hot oven or hob or sitting down to a plate of hot food when the weather is fine. Why not go for the cool option with a cooling chilled soup? Here are 10 delicious variations to choose from

Koldskål (Danish buttermilk dessert soup)

koldskal
Credit: Spice in the City

This traditional Danish dessert of cool buttermilk, flavoured with vanilla and lemon zest is a light but refreshing change.

Serve with the traditional accompaniment of kammerjunker biscuits or add your own favourite berries.

Olive oil and white garlic soup

white garlic soup
Credit: Cilantro and Citronella

This Spanish cold soup isn’t quite what it sounds like. Yes, it is garlicky but it’s primarily an almond soup thickened with bread.

The peppery garnish of olive oil ice cream made with coconut oil complements the garlic and almonds.

Honeydew soup with crab and avocado

honeydew soup
Credit: Tasting Page

The sweetness of honeydew melons works so well in a chilled soup, and this recipe is simplicity itself.

What could be more summery than cool, sweet melon, rich crab meat and creamy avocado?

Khiyar bi laban (cucumbers in yoghurt soup)

cucumber yoghurt
Credit: Recipe Nomad

Lebanese strained yoghurt is diluted and flavoured with garlic and mint before cucumber is added for a cooling effect; like a thinner, lighter version of tzatziki. It’s a popular combination in the eastern Mediterranean.

Chodnik cold Polish beetroot soup

chodnik polish beetroot soup
Credit: Happiness and Homemade

No collection of cold soup would be complete without a cold beetroot soup such as chlodnik or borscht, served traditionally with dill and hard-boiled eggs.

It’s another rich but cooling soup made with yoghurt, kefir or soured cream.

Chilled cucumber soup

cucumber soup
Credit: Garlic and Zest

A slightly thicker and protein-rich vegan option, if made with silken tofu rather than a dairy base, might even tempt the non-vegans on a particularly hot and tiring day. 

This soup contrasts the spicy heat of a pico de gallo garnish made with jalapeño peppers with cooling cucumber flavours.

Chilled beetroot, watermelon and tomato soup

beetroot soup
Credit: Happy and Harried

Another beetroot based cold soup, this time combining the sweetness of beetroot, watermelon and tomato.

These three reds combine to make a really eye-popping bowl of refreshment.

Brazilian strawberry soup with mint and a coconut cream drizzle

strawberry soup
Credit: Sons 'r' Us

Another dessert soup, this time embracing the richness of coconut cream.

Strawberries and mint are a classic combination, and this recipe adds an extra layer of flavour with vanilla and cinnamon.

Fruity green gazpacho

fruity green gazpacho
Credit: Farm Fresh Feasts

Not a tomato gazpacho as we would normally think, but a yellow pepper, celery, cucumber and grape combination that uses these juicy vegetables and fruit juices without any added water.

Gazpacho with balsamic caviar

caviar soup
Credit: Cilantro and Citronella

This is one for when you’re feeling adventurous and up for a challenge.

Enjoy a tomato-rich classic gazpacho, but with an added twist of caviar-like grains of balsamic vinegar, made with agar-agar gelling agent.

Helen Best-Shaw is a freelance food, travel and recipe writer and blogs at Fuss Free Flavours

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