Chilled Cucumber and Dill Soup Recipe

Okay, I know I said I wasn’t going to post many recipes. But a good friend of mine, Kathy, is bat­tling the heat wave in Ontario, so here I am already break­ing my own rules!

As any­one on the East Coast prob­a­bly knows all too well at the moment, heat waves and hot cook­ing don’t go together. So here is the recipe for a deli­cious (and deli­ciously cool!) Chilled Cucum­ber and Dill Soup I wrote down in my kitchen note­book from one of my first classes at Le Cor­don Bleu:

1 1/2 large cucum­bers (I like Eng­lish cucum­ber best)
1 small hand­ful of fresh mint
1 small hand­ful of fresh dill
2 cups of veg­etable stock
2/3 cup plain yogurt (for a vegan ver­sion use silken soft tofu)
salt and freshly ground black pep­per to taste

1. Trim the ends of the cucum­ber and dis­card the seeds. Chop the cucum­ber into chunks and place in the food proces­sor (fit with the metal blade). Add the mint and dill. Process until finely chopped, then add the stock (through the feeder tube) and process until well mixed.

2. Press the soup through a fine strainer (optional) then grad­u­ally whisk the yogurt into the soup until well blended. Sea­son to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Cover and refrig­er­ate overnight or for at least 4 hours.

Whisk the soup well before serv­ing, and taste for seasoning.

Serves 4.

Chef’s tips
1. Pre­pare the soup the day before, cover with a plas­tic wrap and let the flavours blend with time. Keep refrig­er­ated.
2. Chill the bowls in the refrig­er­a­tor before serv­ing — they will be nice and cold too.
3. Serve with a nice, thin, crisp bread.