When the weather heats up, we’re always looking for something a little lighter to serve for lunch and dinner. Whether it’s simply too hot to turn on the oven or you’re yearning for something easy to prepare, get a few cold soup recipes in rotation. Dine al fresco in the backyard with a tasty gazpacho or add pea soup as an appetizer to round out a weekday meal. We’ve gathered flavorful cold soup recipes to whip up during the warmer months. Read on for some of our favorites.
Smoky Salmorejo
This chilled, no-cook Spanish soup is similar to gazpacho but blended instead of chopped. Smoked olive oil adds meatiness to the vegetarian dish.
Chilled Spring Pea Soup
Chef Daniel Boulud puts this deliciously light and clean-tasting soup — a mix of sweet peas, favas, pea shoots, snap peas, and snow peas — on the menu each spring. To make it even easier and summer-friendly, the recipe here calls for just sugar snaps and frozen baby peas.
Chilled Peach Soup with Fresh Goat Cheese
Chef Jason Franey makes this sweet and tangy summer soup by marinating fresh peaches overnight with dried apricots, honey, vinegar, and olive oil, then pureeing the mixture. Since peaches can vary in flavor, Franey suggests seasoning with vinegar to taste as you puree.
Chilled Avocado Soup with Crab
At their San Antonio restaurant, Mixtli, 2017 F&W Best New Chefs Rico Torres and Diego Galicia serve this zesty, creamy cold soup as a refreshing beginning course to their Michoacán tasting menu. Topped with fiery, crisp serranos and sweet crab, it’s a nice alternative to a classic tomato gazpacho.
Yayla Çorbası (Turkish Yogurt Soup) with Velibah
Although most Turks will opt for a pillowy square of pide bread to accompany this soup of yogurt, barley, and dried mint, buttery-crisp velibah stuffed with feta and potato is a go-to for editor Oset Babür’s family, who hails from Ossetia, a state in the South Caucasus.
Tangy Green Zebra Gazpacho
Green zebras are heirloom tomatoes with a striped pattern; they are sweet like red tomatoes but give this gazpacho a lovely jade hue. To make the chilled soup extra tangy, use tomatillos or unripe red tomatoes instead.
Kachumber Gazpacho
F&W Cooks contributor Hetal Vasavada channeled her love for kachumber, a fresh, cucumber-based Indian salad, to inspire this exciting riff on the classic chilled summery soup. Warm spices and a hint of chile add flavor and heat without overwhelming the fresh tomatoes; sev, a crispy chickpea noodle snack, adds a pleasant crunch.
Chilled Piquillo Pepper Soup with Fresh Bean Salad
This light, refreshing soup combines sweet red bell peppers with more intensely flavored roasted piquillo peppers. The lemon juice and mint keep things extra light for the summer season.
Chilled Zucchini Soup
“This recipe came about as a happy accident, when my nephew mistook zucchini for cucumbers when we were making a cold cucumber soup,” chef Vishwesh Bhatt says of the origins of this dish. More than a decade later, he stands by the result, which has a tangy buttermilk broth that gets subtle vegetal sweetness and a wonderfully smooth, creamy texture from the zucchini.
Oliaigua (Menorcan Vegetable Soup) with Fig Jam–Topped Toast
The name for this simple soup of gently stewed onions, tomatoes, and peppers comes from the Catalan words oli (oil) and aigua (water). It can be served warm or chilled.
Chilled Sour Cherry Soup with Fennel and Sour Cream
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Traditional Hungarian chilled sour cherry soup is sweet enough to be a dessert. Chef Nicolaus Balla blends fennel into his more savory version and serves the beautiful pink soup as a first course.
Cold Cucumber Soup with Yogurt and Dill
This cool, refreshing cucumber soup from chef Andrew Zimmern gets tang and creaminess from Greek yogurt and big, summery flavor from lots of fresh herbs.
Borscht with Buttermilk and Grated Cucumber
Packed with fresh summer herbs, this chilled beet soup is bright, earthy, and doesn’t require turning on your stove. Grated beets are quickly marinated in a pickle juice brine to mellow their earthiness before they are stirred together with grated cucumber and buttermilk for a crisp, cooling bite.
Vichyssoise
This simple chilled potato soup is packed with buttery, sweet sautéed leeks and pureed for a silky-smooth texture. A swirl of half-and-half adds the perfect amount of richness to cut the starchy potatoes without weighing down the light and creamy vichyssoise. Topped with crunchy garlic croutons, shaved Pecorino Romano cheese, and a scattering of sliced scallions, this soup deserves a spot in your summer rotation.
Green Corn Soup
This silky, cool corn soup gets its great flavor and fun color from spinach and jalapeños. Recipe developer Laura Rege brightens it up with a touch of fresh lime juice as well.
Chilled Tomato Soup with Tarragon Crème Fraîche
Supersweet tomatoes will make this cold soup extra delicious. But to enhance the flavor of less-than-perfect produce, you can add tomato paste, which has a rich, concentrated taste.
