The Calm One and I eat a lot of soups because they are inexpensive, tasty, and nutritious. Instead of eliminating such deliciousness from our summer menu, I puree them and add cream/crème fraîche/yogurt, a zap of zing such as sherry vinegar/fresh fruit juice, and alluring garnishes. They are then served refreshingly cold.
Follow my recipe for Potato/Onion Soup with Herbs, Crème Fraîche, & Saucisses de Strasbourg but leave out the saucisses.
Scissors with multiple blades do a neat job processing a large quantity of herbs.
Completely puree the soup until it is exceedingly smooth and then chill well in the fridge. Add enough yogurt to get the consistency desired. Stir in some sherry vinegar and salt to taste because a cold soup needs to be well-seasoned for its flavour to stand up. For the garnish, blend a bit of tomato paste into additional yogurt until a lovely shade of pink, shave off some Parmesan from its wedge using a potato peeler, and select some nice dill sprigs.
The tomato in the yogurt goes well with potatoes since they both are in the same biological family which is a guiding principle Deborah Madison outlines so well in Vegetable Literacy; additionally the pleasing pink colour highlights the cool, light-green of the soup.
In the potager, the first cropping of raspberries continue.
This is the only summer in all of the five we have lived here that I have managed to grow head lettuce to the point of it developing a head or as the French say laitue pommée. The secret? Protecting the lettuce from the sun by growing successive rows under some old, white cotton-sheeting stretched over metal supports!
In the flower garden, the hydrangea is showing off its magenta blooms.
The abelia is doings its important job of attracting bees.
À la prochaine!
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Chilled Cucumber Soup
Chilled Mushroom Tomato Soup
Chilled Carrot Red Currant Orange Soup
Chilled Golden Shrimp Chowder
Braised Lettuce, Garlic & Capers in Olive Oil
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| Topped with dill, Parmesan shavings, and tomato yogurt |
Follow my recipe for Potato/Onion Soup with Herbs, Crème Fraîche, & Saucisses de Strasbourg but leave out the saucisses.
 |
| Dill, parsley, and chives, fresh from our potager |
Scissors with multiple blades do a neat job processing a large quantity of herbs.
Completely puree the soup until it is exceedingly smooth and then chill well in the fridge. Add enough yogurt to get the consistency desired. Stir in some sherry vinegar and salt to taste because a cold soup needs to be well-seasoned for its flavour to stand up. For the garnish, blend a bit of tomato paste into additional yogurt until a lovely shade of pink, shave off some Parmesan from its wedge using a potato peeler, and select some nice dill sprigs.
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| Bring the Parmesan shavings to room temperature before garnishing, it really makes a difference! |
The tomato in the yogurt goes well with potatoes since they both are in the same biological family which is a guiding principle Deborah Madison outlines so well in Vegetable Literacy; additionally the pleasing pink colour highlights the cool, light-green of the soup.
 |
| So pretty in a summery way! |
In the potager, the first cropping of raspberries continue.
This is the only summer in all of the five we have lived here that I have managed to grow head lettuce to the point of it developing a head or as the French say laitue pommée. The secret? Protecting the lettuce from the sun by growing successive rows under some old, white cotton-sheeting stretched over metal supports!
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| I am so proud of this gorgeous head lettuce! |
In the flower garden, the hydrangea is showing off its magenta blooms.
 |
| The more acidic the soil is, the bluer the blossoms: ours is slightly acidic |
The abelia is doings its important job of attracting bees.
À la prochaine!
RELATED POSTS
Chilled Cucumber Soup
Chilled Mushroom Tomato Soup
Chilled Carrot Red Currant Orange Soup
Chilled Golden Shrimp Chowder
Braised Lettuce, Garlic & Capers in Olive Oil