Cucumber Gazpacho

The time has come to publicly publish my first recipe ever. It’s kind of a big deal for me actually… So if you’d like, please leave a comment and let me know what you think 🙂

As it is getting warmer and warmer, even here in Holland, I am starting to crave veggies and cold meals. What is an easier way to incorporate both of these than in a cold cucumbersoup? This might be one of the easiest soups -or dish for that matter- that I have ever made. It is kind of inspired by the famous cold soup called Gazpacho, which is a Spanish tomato soup. Though I happened to have a lot of cucumbers lying around, and I love the watery freshness that these vegetables give. It’s one of those dishes that leave you completely satisfied yet not bloated. Perfect for a hot summer day.

By the way, this is also the soup that’s actually the header for this blog. See how delicious such a simple dish can look! The beauty of this to me is that you can basically add any ingredient as a condiment to the soup, and it will become a completely different dish. So be creative, substitute the mint for parsley, or add some roasted pine nuts. Anything your heart desires.

Cold cucumber soup.
Cold cucumber soup.

As my parents and I have different preferences -I looove chilli peppers, my mother not so much- I always serve extras in small bowls, so everyone can make their own version. Also, in the making of this soup I used regular low fat yogurt. However, I would recommend using Greek yogurt as it is a lot thicker and gives the soup a bit more substance.

Bonus! You can easily freeze it, and use it later. Or make ahead, and bring it to a picknick, or even to work. That’s the benefit of a cold soup.

Cucumber Gazpacho

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 2 cucumbers
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 500 ml (18 fl oz) water
  • 150 grams (5 oz) greek yogurt
  • Fresh coriander to taste
  • Fresh mint leaves to taste
  • Olive oil
  • Pepper and salt

Optional

  • Feta cheese
  • Fresh chili pepper
  • Mint

Used kitchen appliances

  • Food processor

Preparation

  1. To make the process run smoother, I’d suggest you start chopping first. By doing so, your mise en place is finished, which means that you will eat much quicker! Dice the cucumbers in small cubes. It’s completely up to you whether or not you want to remove the skin as well. I prefer to keep it on, as it produces dark green specks in a mint colored soup, which I find to be very pleasing to the eye. Either finely chop the garlic, or use a garlic press. Unfortunately, I am not so fancy and do not own a press. But really, finely chopping the garlic serves as a great tool in the improvement of your slicing and dicing skills! And then that’s that. Mise en place has been prepared.
  2. Get the food processor out of the cupboard, toss in the cucumbers, the garlic, the yogurt, the coriander, the mint, and add a dash of olive oil. Process this until all ingredients sort of mix together into a thick fluid. Now, it’s time to taste, and add salt, pepper, or olive oil to your liking. If you’d like to have a thinner soup, just pour in a bit of water until it’s as you want it to be! Same goes if you want to have a thicker soup, only then add more yogurt.
  3. And you’re done! Serve the soup. Put some bowls on the table with extra mint, chili pepper, and feta cheese for your eaters to choose from.

3 Comments Add yours

  1. Looks great and yummy! Congrats on your first recipe. We just started blogging recently too 🙂

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  2. basilandoil says:

    Thank you, that’s nice to hear 🙂 I am sure going to follow you, your recipes look great! Good luck with your blog!

    Like

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