Chef Thomas
A Proper Chicken Broth
Sunday's roast chicken, simmered slowly on Monday with carrots, celery, leeks, and thyme into a bowl of clear, golden broth that smells like the kitchen is paying attention.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Chilled Cucumber Soup with Yoghurt and Mint
Created by Chef Thomas
A cold cucumber soup that asks nothing of the hob and very little of the cook, just a blender, some yoghurt, and the confidence to serve something that is honestly, perfectly simple.
Soups & Stews
British
Quick Meal
15 min
Active Time
0 min cook•PT15M plus 1 hour chilling total
Yield4 servings
There are three or four days a year in this country when the kitchen is too hot to cook in. You know the ones. The windows are open and it makes no difference. The butter has gone soft on the counter. The cat has found the one cool tile in the house and isn't moving. On those days, this is what I make.
It isn't really cooking. A cucumber, some yoghurt, a handful of mint from the pot by the back door, everything into the blender and then into the fridge. Fifteen minutes of work, most of it washing up. But the result is something genuinely worth eating: cold, clean, sharp with lemon, and so green it looks like you tried harder than you did.
The cucumber does the work. A good one, firm and cool and smelling of rain, is all this soup needs to be. The yoghurt gives it body, the mint lifts it, and the olive oil at the end rounds everything into something that feels like a proper bowl of food rather than a drink. I wrote it down in the notebook last July: cucumber soup, garden mint, too hot to think. That was the whole entry. It was enough.
We're only making dinner. Or lunch, really. This is a lunchtime soup, I think, eaten at the kitchen table with the back door open and nothing particular planned for the afternoon.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
cucumbers
Quantity
2 large
roughly chopped
natural full-fat yoghurt
Quantity
300g
garlic
Quantity
1 small clove
crushed
lemon
Quantity
1
juiced
fresh mint leaves
Quantity
a generous handful
good olive oil
Quantity
3 tablespoons, plus extra for finishing
cold water
Quantity
150ml
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
white pepper
Quantity
a pinch
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| cucumbersroughly chopped | 2 large |
| natural full-fat yoghurt | 300g |
| garliccrushed | 1 small clove |
| lemonjuiced | 1 |
| fresh mint leaves | a generous handful |
| good olive oil | 3 tablespoons, plus extra for finishing |
| cold water | 150ml |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| white pepper | a pinch |
Equipment Needed
- •Blender or food processor
- •Large jug or bowl for chilling
- •Ladle
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the cucumber
Peel the cucumbers if you want a paler, smoother soup. Leave them unpeeled if you like a bit of colour and don't mind the slight bitterness the skin carries. Either way, chop them roughly. No need to seed them. Cut a few thin slices from one cucumber and set them aside for later.
If your cucumbers are the long, thin sort from a garden or a good greengrocer, the skin is thin enough to leave on. The fat, waxy supermarket kind benefit from peeling. - 2
Blend everything together
Put the chopped cucumber into a blender with the yoghurt, garlic, lemon juice, mint leaves, olive oil, and the cold water. Blitz until completely smooth. It should be the consistency of double cream, pale green and flecked with tiny points of mint. If it's too thick, add a splash more water. If it tastes flat, add more lemon. Season with salt and white pepper. Taste it. Then taste it again. Cold food needs more seasoning than you think, because the chill dulls everything.
- 3
Chill properly
Pour the soup into a jug or bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour. It needs to be properly cold, not just cool. The flavours settle and deepen as it sits. When you take it out, taste it once more and adjust the salt and lemon. Cold changes things. What tasted right at room temperature may need a little correction now.
If you're in a hurry, a few ice cubes blended in will bring the temperature down, though you'll lose a little thickness. On the hottest days, this is a fair exchange. - 4
Serve cold
Ladle the soup into cold bowls. Lay the reserved cucumber slices across the surface. Tear a few small mint leaves over the top. Finish with a thin stream of your best olive oil, the kind you keep for exactly this sort of thing. Eat it with bread if you want, or on its own, sitting somewhere with a breeze.
Chef Tips
- •The yoghurt matters. Use a good, thick, full-fat natural yoghurt. Greek-style works well. Low-fat yoghurt will give you a thin, sour soup with no body. This is not the place to economize on richness.
- •Season generously and taste after chilling. Cold suppresses flavour the way darkness suppresses colour. A soup that tastes well-seasoned at room temperature will taste of almost nothing straight from the fridge. Be brave with the salt and the lemon.
- •The olive oil at the end is not a garnish. It's an ingredient. Use something grassy and peppery, the kind you'd happily dip bread into on its own. A thin stream across the surface of each bowl, just before it goes to the table.
- •If you grow cucumbers, or know someone who does, this is the recipe that justifies the plant. A cucumber still warm from the garden, peeled and blended within the hour, makes a soup that tastes entirely different from one made with a supermarket cucumber. The difference is the difference between hearing a song and remembering it.
Advance Preparation
- •The soup can be made up to a day ahead and kept refrigerated. The flavour improves over the first few hours as the mint and garlic settle into the yoghurt. After a full day it begins to lose its freshness.
- •Do not add the finishing olive oil or garnish until just before serving. The oil pools and disperses if it sits too long.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 290g)
Calories
185 calories
Total Fat
15 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
12 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
340 mg
Total Carbohydrates
10 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
6 g
Protein
4 g
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