Venus Rising

Food for SoulIssue: Virgo 08

Blend the Last Flavors of Summer Into a Refreshing Cold Soup

Watercolor by Philip GaligaIt is time to celebrate the last hot days of the year and take advantage of the plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables in the garden. The produce of August and September comes on strong and cold soups are an easy, interesting, and delicious way to utilize the summer finale. There are plenty of cool cukes and tons of tomatoes to make refreshing gazpacho, the beets are beckon for blending with cool buttermilk, and the melons are ready to be slurped from a soup bowl.

Cold soup sounds oxymoronic because our memories automatically conjure visions of piping puree or steaming stews. Taking the first spoonful of cold soup, even with curiosity peaked and full knowledge that it is COLD, our brains still have to re-adjust.

Gazpacho is a traditional, savory cold soup and a great way to use tomatoes and other seasonal vegetables. It may be the most identifiable cold soup and common offering on restaurant summer menus.

After gazpacho, thoughts of cold soup likely stray to fruit soups. Fruit soups are not just a creation of modern chefs who do funky things with common food. Fruit soup has long been served on dessert menus or as a prelude to a main course in Scandinavia and Germany, with cherry being the most popular.

Some cold soup recipes date back centuries. In fact, gazpacho originated in the middle ages as a mortar and pestle creation of garlic, almonds, oil, salt, stale bread, and vinegar, ground together and served, not cooked or heated. As gazpacho moved north and west with migration, tomatoes were added and tomatoes remain the primary ingredient today. With the addition of other vegetables, like cucumbers, onions, and peppers the pseudonym for gazpacho became “salad soup.” 

Another cold soup steeped in cultural history is chlodnik from Poland. Chlodnik is a borscht-like soup made from beets, herbs, cucumbers, and sometimes veal. It is always served with a heavy dose of sour cream. In a similar but less vibrant vein, traditional Armenian Jajik is a combination of cucumber and yogurt that is not only creamy and refreshing on its own but a great temperature regulator for spicy foods. Vichyssoise, the cold, creamy potato leek soup we are all vaguely familiar with, should have been created in some glorious kitchen in France. In reality however, it didn’t come into being until the early 20^th century in the glorious kitchen of the Ritz Carlton in New York City. Other cold soups have long traditions including a sour cherry soup called meggyleves in Hungary and a coconut soup in Vietnam called che Thai.