The soothing sensations provided by a nourishing bowl of soup are not only reserved for winter. In fact, chilled soups are popular all over the world, helping people of all cultures to cool down in summer.
Here are some creative cold soup dishes from different parts of the globe, for maximum summer refreshment.
Chilled beetroot soup
You’ve heard of borscht, the traditional beetroot soup of Russia and many Baltic countries. But have you tried its chilled out cousin, a cold variety of the famed soup called holodnik?
This chilled beetroot soup combines beets with cucumbers, sour cream and kefir or buttermilk. It’s typically topped with sour cream, dill or chives, and served with a hard-boiled egg.
Nearby countries have their own variety of cold beetroot soup. Slavic countries call it svekolnik. In Poland, it’s chlodnik while in Lithuania it’s saltibarsciai. Whatever the name, this bright pink soup is incredibly tasty and refreshing.
Sour cherry soup
Sour cherry soup (also called meggyleves) may originate from Hungary but it’s a popular summer delicacy shared by many European countries, including Austria and Germany.
Meggyleves is made using sour cream, sugar and whole, fresh sour cherries (although the fresh fruit can easily be substituted for the frozen variety). Some households add a splash of red wine, while others make the soup even more luscious through the addition of ice cream. Throw in spices like cinnamon and a pinch of salt you’ve got one vibrant dessert that can also be enjoyed as an appetiser.
Chilled buckwheat noodle soup
Naengmyeon is an ancient Korean soup that can make your summer days sing. Simply slurp the thin and chewy noodles from a bowl of chilled beef broth and savour the comforting umami flavours.
As you’re enjoying the chilled soup experience, take a moment to appreciate the history of the ancient dish, which has been around since the Joseon Dynasty (the 1300s-1800s). Commonly known as Pyongyang naengmyeon, the cold soup was named after the North Korean city. However, the dish became popular in both North and South Korea after the Korean War.
Chilled avocado soup
If you love the flavours of guacamole, then you’ll cherish the very versatile and culturally diverse cold avocado soup.
While chilled avo soup is a dish with no known origin, it is also a dish that's popular in several countries.
People from the Ivory Coast in West Africa make their soup (‘soupe d'avocat abidjanaise’) with avocados, yoghurt, lime juice, garlic, cold chicken broth and a few healthy splashes of Tabasco sauce. Some Mexican versions feature thickened cream instead of yoghurt, while in Colombia ground cumin can be added for a flavour infusion.
So next time you see avocado on a hot summer’s day, think of chilled avo soup and remember its potential to unite people from all walks of life.
avo in the bowl
Cooling avocado soup
Chilled cucumber numbers
Cucumbers are given the star summer treatment in India with a cold cucumber soup called kheere ka shorba.
The first step to making this lightweight dish is to sauté celery and garlic in ghee. Allow the mixture to cool and blend it with chopped cucumbers, garlic, yoghurt, mint, coriander and a squirt of lemon juice for taste. Chill the soup.
When the soup reaches the cool temperature you’re aiming for, it’s time to eat. Clean the bowl with some bread and enjoy the experience of cooling down with a chilled cucumber delight.
Hiyashijiru, a Japanese cucumber soup, uses its sesame miso broth to differentiate itself from kheere ka shorba and other international cucumber soups.
Enjoy hiyashijiru, a chilled miso soup topped with cucumbers from Japan, and cool down on a hot day. Source: iStockphoto/Getty Images
The chilled miso soup hails from the Miyazaki region of Japan, located on the island of Kyūshū where it gets quite hot in summer. This chilled soup has long provided locals on the island with an ice-cold break from the heat.
To make the soup, incorporate miso into dashi and chill. Once cold, add thin slices of cucumber (previously salted and dried) and tuna, tofu, okra or cooked chicken, before topping it with ground white sesame seeds. Hiyashijiru can be eaten alone – cold and fresh – or ladled over a bowl of rice.
Cold yoghurt and cucumber soup
This time around, the ultra-versatile summer vegetable features in a dish that’s created by mixing yoghurt, cucumber and ice cubes (water) with walnuts, raisins, black pepper and salt. The soup is then elevated to the next level of attractiveness with a sprinkle of mint and rose petals on top.
Although the final product looks too good to eat, you can rest assured that it's full of substance. As the locals believe, abdoogh khiar may help keep your blood pressure low and cool you down so much on a hot day that you’ll feel like napping after snacking. Now that’s a reason to eat your cucumbers.
If you've got a healthy dose of yoghurt leftover then a bowl of Azerbaijani dovga is also worth a slurp. A yoghurt and herb soup that is served chilled in summer and piping hot in the winter, it's rich, creamy and brimming with nourishing rice. Comfort all year round.
Cold cream of leek and potato soup
If Julia Childs was still alive and came over for dinner, this is the dish you’d want to make her. Reportedly, vichyssoise was the chef’s most loved soup.
The French classic is a thick soup made with boiled and puréed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. The soup – called potage au parmentier in French – can be served hot if you really want to eat it that way. But traditionally, it’s served cold.
The dish is named after Antoine Parmentier, a French campaigner during the reign of Louis XVI who advocated for potato (which was seen as poisonous and only fit for hogs) declared a safe and edible vegetable.
In 1772, the Paris Faculty of Medicine officially declared the potato as fit for human consumption. Lucky for us, as this chilled soup is not only perfectly edible but flavoursome as well.
Cold Spanish tomato soup (this one isn’t gazpacho)
Salmorejo is a cold tomato soup from Spain that’s not as well known internationally as gazpacho but just as stunning to taste.
Although it has similar ingredients to gazpacho – the core features being tomatoes, sherry vinegar, garlic and olive oil – it’s a creamy soup that’s made thick by the inclusion of bread in the recipe. It’s this creaminess that makes a chilled serve of salmorejo so filling and ideal as a stand-alone meal.
Still not convinced of the differences between salmorejo and gazpacho? Firstly, salmorejo comes from the south of Spain, Cordoba, while gazpacho is a regional dish of Andalusia. The colour of salmorejo is more orangey-pink than gazpacho and it’s also served cold in a bowl, not a glass. So if you want to make a Spanish tomato soup with a difference, sample a bowl of salmorejo topped with slices of jamon and hard-boiled egg. Once you taste it, you'll be coming back for more.
https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/abdoogh-khiar-persian-yoghurt-soup
