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Home > Sangre Celestial > 3 cold soups: Okroshka, tabouleh, corn and basil
Podcast: Sangre Celestial
Episode:

3 cold soups: Okroshka, tabouleh, corn and basil
Category: Arts
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2025-07-31 19:00:00
Description: I know that for many eaters, the idea of cold soup doesn’t seem like it would be satisfying enough for a meal. I’m here to disabuse you of that notion. As the temperatures rise, we need to hydrate more, and while drinking quarts of water will quench our thirst, it doesn’t cool down our core or nourish us. Cold soups do both of those things. And often they’re just the ticket when heat causes the appetite to flag. Also, cold soups often require us to slow down as we eat, allowing us to really taste the ingredients. I wanted to offer soups that involve no cooking, except maybe for adding garnishes like boiled potatoes or hard-cooked eggs. I offer a soup from Eastern Europe, one from Spain, and one starring the summer ingredient corn. If you don’t want to cook and prefer to run out and get an excellent cold soup to-go , I have suggestions from a roundup of three cold Korean soups that we did back in 2020. With kefir as a base, okroshka turns a simple chop of vegetables and herbs into a satisfying meal during hot weather. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock. Okroshka Popular throughout Eastern Europe and Russia, this marries sliced or chopped veggies (radishes, boiled potatoes, cucumber), hard-cooked eggs, dill, chives or green onion with a base of kefir and a surprise ingredient. Some people add cubes of cooked ham. My mom ate this constantly throughout the hot summer days. This recipe comes from Sasha Shor via the Jewish Food Society. Sasha’s family is from Moldova. Her new take on the recipe is to add pickle brine to the kefir mixture. You first make your dairy base. You can use yogurt, but kefir is more traditional and easily available here. The kefir is mixed with a bit of minced garlic, dill, and the secret ingredient, pickle brine. I drink pickle brine from the jar, so I love that it’s a part of this particular recipe. The liquid mixture is chilled until very cold, even a day or two ahead. Then simply slice or chop the radishes, green onions, cucumber, boiled potatoes, and hard-boiled eggs. To serve, put the mixed vegetables in a bowl and pour the kefir mixture over. Right before serving, add a little chilled seltzer to each bowl. Garnish with dill, mint, or both. Chilled tabouleh soup We can’t leave tomatoes out of our repertoire. After all, it's summer. But for something different than gazpacho, let's try Sami Tamimi’s Chilled Tabouleh Soup recipe from his new book Boustany . It takes the idea of tabouleh, the bulgur salad with parsley and chopped vegetables, and turns it into a refreshing yet hearty summer soup. After soaking fine bulgur in hot water, you blitz raw tomatoes with parsley, onion, mint, and some warming spices with olive oil. Then you add the soaked bulgur and let it all settle together in the fridge. It’s served with a drizzle of olive oil and chopped peppers and cucumbers. If you prefer medium or whole grain bulgur, I’m sure it would also do well in this soup. Chilled corn and basil soup I love real sweet summer corn. There’s nothing like it. Most chilled corn soups call for cooking the corn in stock with various ingredients, but I wanted a soup that doesn’t require cooking, and I found Andrea Potischman’s recipe from her blog Simmer and Sauce. I happen to enjoy eating raw corn. It doesn’t get stuck in your teeth as much as cooked corn does. For this soup, first slice the kernels off the corn cobs. It’s an easy job. I usually do it in a bowl so the niblets don’t fly all over the place. After, you give the niblets an initial blitz in the blender. Add buttermilk, basil, scallions, lime juice, garlic, salt, and ice cubes to the blender and purée until very smooth. Some people like to strain the mixture either partially or completely and discard the solids. It’s up to you. I like the texture of the unstrained version. To serve, garnish the soup with sliced radishes and a drizzle of olive oil. I might even add a dollop of sour cream.
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