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 Lettuce Soup
Created by Chef Thomas
A cold summer soup made from garden lettuce that was bolting faster than you could eat it, thickened with potato, bright and pale green, the kind of thing that justifies the heat.
Soups & Stews
British
Weeknight
15 min
Active Time
25 min cook•PT40M plus chilling total
Yield4 servings
The lettuces have bolted. Three days of real heat and they've gone from useful to theatrical, shooting up like they've somewhere to be. You could be annoyed about it, or you could make soup.
This is what I do every July when the garden produces more lettuce than two people can reasonably eat in salads. You cook it down with a little onion, a potato for body, some decent stock, and blend the whole thing smooth. Then you chill it. What comes out of the fridge a few hours later is a surprise every time: pale green, silky, tasting of something clean and grassy that you can't quite name. It's better than it has any right to be.
I wrote it down in the notebook years ago. "Lettuce soup. Cold. Better than expected. Make again." I have, most summers since. The best version uses whatever is in the garden, round lettuce or butterhead, the outer leaves included, the ones that are too big and slightly bitter for a salad. They cook down to almost nothing, which is the point. A cold soup needs to taste concentrated, like the idea of the ingredient rather than the thing itself.
Serve it on one of those evenings when the kitchen is too warm to cook anything properly and you want something that feels like you've made an effort without actually breaking a sweat. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. Use what you have. Trust your instincts. We're only making dinner.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
garden lettuce
Quantity
2 large heads
roughly torn
potato
Quantity
1 medium
peeled and diced
onion
Quantity
1 small
finely sliced
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
vegetable or light chicken stock
Quantity
600ml
double cream
Quantity
100ml, plus extra to serve
lemon juice
Quantity
a squeeze
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
white pepper
Quantity
to taste
chive flowers or snipped chives (optional)
Quantity
a few
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| garden lettuceroughly torn | 2 large heads |
| potatopeeled and diced | 1 medium |
| onionfinely sliced | 1 small |
| unsalted butter | 30g |
| vegetable or light chicken stock | 600ml |
| double cream | 100ml, plus extra to serve |
| lemon juice | a squeeze |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| white pepper | to taste |
| chive flowers or snipped chives (optional) | a few |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy-bottomed saucepan
- •Stick blender or countertop blender
- •Fine-mesh sieve (optional, for a smoother finish)
Instructions
- 1
Soften the onion and potato
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan over a low heat. Add the sliced onion and a pinch of salt, stir it through, and let it soften for five minutes or so until it's translucent and sweet smelling. No colour. Add the diced potato and stir it around in the butter for a minute, then pour in the stock. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until the potato is completely tender, about fifteen minutes.
The potato is here for body, not flavour. Dice it small so it cooks quickly and blends smooth. A waxy variety works well, but use what you have. - 2
Add the lettuce
Push all the torn lettuce into the pan. It looks like far too much. It isn't. Stir it through the hot stock and watch it collapse in about thirty seconds, going from a great heap to almost nothing. Let it cook for two minutes, no more. You want it wilted and bright, not grey and tired. The colour matters here because it carries through to the finished soup.
- 3
Blend until very smooth
Take the pan off the heat. Blend until completely smooth and silky. A stick blender works, but a countertop blender gives a finer texture, and texture is everything in a cold soup. You notice lumps in a cold bowl that you'd forgive in a hot one. Pass it through a sieve if you want it properly refined. Stir in the cream and the squeeze of lemon. Season with salt and white pepper. Taste it warm, knowing it will need to be slightly over-seasoned now because chilling mutes everything.
Season more boldly than feels right. Cold dulls flavour. A soup that tastes perfectly seasoned warm will taste flat once chilled. Be generous. Taste it again after it's been in the fridge. - 4
Chill thoroughly
Pour the soup into a bowl, press cling film directly onto the surface to prevent a skin forming, and refrigerate for at least three hours, or overnight. The colour will hold if you've kept the cooking time short. When you're ready to serve, stir it well, taste once more for seasoning, and ladle it into cold bowls. A thin stream of cream across the surface. Chives or their flowers if the garden has them. Nothing else.
Chef Tips
- •Any soft lettuce works. Round, butterhead, Little Gem, even the bolting ones with their slightly bitter edge. Avoid iceberg, which has nothing to say. The outer leaves and the bigger, coarser ones are actually better here than the tender hearts you'd want in a salad.
- •The lemon juice is quiet but essential. It lifts the soup from something pleasant to something you actually want a second bowl of. Add it a squeeze at a time and taste as you go. You're not looking for tartness, just brightness.
- •If you want to make this feel like more of an occasion, float a few peas in each bowl, raw and sweet, straight from the pod. Or a few leaves of something peppery, watercress or rocket, torn small. But it doesn't need it. The simplicity is the point.
Advance Preparation
- •The soup must be made ahead. It needs at least three hours in the fridge, though overnight is better. Make it in the morning and forget about it until the evening.
- •Keeps well in the fridge for up to two days. The colour fades slightly on the second day but the flavour holds. Stir well and re-season before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 330g)
Calories
255 calories
Total Fat
21 g
Saturated Fat
13 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
60 mg
Sodium
660 mg
Total Carbohydrates
13 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
3 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from British Soups
Browse the full collection
Chef Thomas
Beef and Barley Broth
Beef shin and pearl barley simmered low and slow with root vegetables until the meat gives way and the broth thickens into something between a soup and a stew, the kind of bowl that steadies you on a cold night.
Chef Thomas
Broccoli and Stilton Soup
Broccoli simmered with potato and good stock, then stirred through with enough Stilton to make the whole bowl rich and savoury and deeply satisfying, without a drop of cream in sight.
Chef Thomas
Butternut Squash Soup
Squash roasted until its edges catch and caramelise, then blended into a deep-orange soup that tastes the way an autumn evening feels when the clocks have gone back and the lamps are on early.