The cukes are taking over my garden! Time to make soup!
The original cucumber soup recipe comes from Ikies Traditional Houses, a wonderful hotel in the beautiful town of Oia in Santorini, Greece. After a long, hot day of exploring this beautiful island, we settled down to a refreshing bowl of cucumber soup. They were nice enough to share the recipe with us, and a few tweaks later, it’s my definition of perfect.
Ingredients:
3 English cucumbers or 5 regular cucumbers, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 cup vegetable stock, preferably home-made
4 cups plain full- fat yogurt, preferably Fage Greek yogurt
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
Juice of 1 lemon
Fleur de Sel and pepper
Peel, seed and chop the cucumbers and place in a blender with garlic, stock, 2 cups of the yogurt, mint leaves, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons Fleur de Sel, and a grating of fresh black pepper.
Turn on blender and mix well. Stop blender and then add remaining 2 cups of yogurt and mix by hand.
Pour cucumber soup in bowls. Garnish with diced cucumber or radish.
To make the vegetable stock, boil chopped carrots, celery and onion in a large pot of water for an hour, reducing by half. Strain the veggies before using the stock. You can roast the veggies on a sheet pan in a hot oven for a bit before adding to the water for an even richer flavor.
Live the Live ™ 