Name: Cold cucumber soup with herbs and pansies
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 500 g cucumber; 2-3 bunches fresh herbs (mint, flat leaf parsley, chervil, tarragon); 300 g Turkish yogurt (full fat); ⅓ dl extra virgin olive oil; 1 clove garlic; ½ lemon, juiced; 1 scallion, green part (or a few chives); edible pansies; salt, freshly cracked black pepper (to taste); ice; extra virgin olive oil; edible pansies (and/or other edible flowers); flakey salt, freshly cracked black pepper

Cold cucumber soup with lots of fresh herbs and edible pansies is my ultimate summer soup! Making of this cucumber soup is a breeze. You can chop the ingredient straight into your blender and with a push of a button you’re done!

This light, refreshing and summery cold cucumber soup is best served with a few ice cubes and a good drizzle of grassy olive oil. The edible flowers on top are NOT optional! 😉 They are not only a pretty garnish, but add a lovely floral note to the soup!

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Herb overload!

I was recently in a situation, where I had hoarded a huge amount of fresh herbs to my home for photography purposes! (You can see those photos here.) A lovely situation in theory, but at the time I had little to no time for kitchen shenanigans. As fresh herbs never seem to thrive in my household, I had to come up with a solution fast. I knew that otherwise all the lovely produce would end up in the bio waste!

Cold cucumber soup

As I was racking my brain for ideas, I remembered Green Goddess dressing! This dressing isn’t well known in Finland, but a few years back I gave it a go and fell in love with its freshness. So I decided to mimic those flavors as a cold cucumber soup! Into the blender went a bunch of de-seeded cucumber, followed by a huge amount of herbs. Flat leaf parsley, mint, tarragon and chervil to be exact! I also added the stems and leaves of the edible “salad” pansies I had at home. This variety of violet has a lovely floral note to the greens, so why not add it in too?

To add body to the soup, I drizzled in grassy extra virgin olive oil and creamy full fat Turkish yogurt. To season the mix, I added a small clove of garlic and some scallion greens – enough to give the soup flavor, but not so much that the alliums would overpower it. A bit of lemon juice, salt and black pepper was added and with the push of a button, my cold cucumber soup was done!

The floral note from the violet stems and leaves turned out to be a lovely addition to the soup! That’s why i think it was only right to also garnish the soup with edible pansies. To amp up the floral notes I also crushed some dried rose petals on top of the soup. Since it’s a cold cucumber soup, it has to be served with ice cubes. And oh what a lovely light, refreshing and summery soup it turned out to be!

Cold cucumber soup with herbs and pansies

Cold cucumber soup with herbs and edible pansies gets done with the press of a blender button! This light and refreshing soup is perfect for a quick lunch or an appetizer on a hot summer day.

Course Appetizer, Lunch, Soup

Diet Vegetarian

Keyword soup, vegetarian

Servings 2 people

Author Juulia

Prep Time 15 mins

Total Time 15 mins

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Equipment

blender / immersion blender

Ingredients

500 g cucumber
2-3 bunches fresh herbs (mint, flat leaf parsley, chervil, tarragon)
300 g Turkish yogurt (full fat)
⅓ dl extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
½ lemon, juiced
1 scallion, green part (or a few chives)
edible pansies
salt, freshly cracked black pepper (to taste)

To serve:

ice
extra virgin olive oil
edible pansies (and/or other edible flowers)
flakey salt, freshly cracked black pepper

Notes:

This recipe makes a nice light lunch for two, or an appetizer for four!

I love to use the combination of flat leaf parsley and mint + chervil and/or tarragon in this soup! The subtle aniseed flavor of chervil and tarragon goes really well with the cucumber.

As mentioned, I also throw in the stems and leaves of the "salad pansies" that I use to decorate the soup with! If you can't get a hold of the type of violets which have a nice flavor also in their stems and leafs, you could add the tiniest bit of rose water (tiny, tiny, tiny !!! amount only) to achieve a similar floral note in the soup. But the soup is lovely also without it.

Other herbs to try are watercress, dill, lemon balm and sorrel. Adjust the amounts and ratios of the different herbs to your liking! During wild food season, I like to add in common wood sorrel, and use the flowers as decoration.

Instructions

Preparation:

Peel and chop the garlic clove. Chop a few centimeters of scallion green or a few chives and add them to your blender bowl. Top the onions with the juice of a half of lemon.
De-seed the cucumber and roughly chop it. You can peel it too, if you like (the cucumber I use here in Finland must be peeled, since the peel is quite bitter). Add the cucumber to the blender and puree everything until smooth.
Throw in the herbs of your choice! I like to add a lot of flat leaf parsley, stems and all + some mint, tarragon and chervil. If the herbs have a thick hard stem, I remove them. I also throw in some tender leaves and stems of edible violets, since they add a lovely floral note to the soup. The variety I use is sold here under the name "salad pansy" and is fully edible with a mild floral taste. Please note that not all violets can be used like this!
Add in yogurt and blend until everything is super smooth! Season the cold cucumber soup with a good amount of salt and freshly cracked black pepper, blend once more, check the seasoning, adjust if needed... and you're done!
I recommend that you leave the soup covered in the fridge to cool off for half an hour or so to chill and to let the flavors develop a bit. Just remember to mix it well once more before serving!

Serving:

Serve the cold cucumber soup in deep bowls with a few ice cubes. Drizzle with some grassy extra virgin olive oil and finish the bowls with flakey salt, freshly cracked black pepper and edible violets. Serve immediately!