Cold yoghurt soup
Ideally, you want to start making this a day in advance, to let the flavours develop and deepen. That said, you can make it on the spot and still end up with a very satisfying result. Just make sure you chill it before serving.
4 people
Serving size
Ingredients
1 large green pepper, cored and roughly chopped
4 celery sticks, roughly chopped
180g cucumber, peeled, roughly chopped
140g cooked potato, cold
350g Greek yoghurt
200ml cold vegetable stock
180ml olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
25g parsley, leaves and stalk
25g dill, leaves and stalk, plus extra to garnish
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Grated zest of 1 lemon
½ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp lemon juice
Lots of fresh basil and mint, leaves picked, to serve
For the tapenade toasts:
80g pitted black olives
20g capers
1 garlic clove
1 sprig fresh thyme, leaves picked
1 tbsp olive oil
4 slices rustic white bread
Method
- Put all the soup ingredients, except the lemon juice, basil and mint, into a large bowl. Stir roughly with a wooden spoon or, even better, squash together with your hands, then cover the bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours.
- To make the tapenade toasts, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/ gas mark 6. In a food processor, work the olives, capers, garlic, thyme and oil to a rough paste, then brush this mixture over the bread slices and lay out on an oven tray. Bake for eight to 10 minutes - the toasts should be crisp on the outside but not totally dry - then remove from the oven and set aside to cool down.
- When you are ready to serve, remove the bowl from the fridge and blitz the soup with a stick blender (or in a food processor) until smooth. Taste, adjust the seasoning as necessary and stir in the lemon juice.
- Divide the soup into individual bowls, garnish with a generous amount of freshly shredded basil and mint, and the extra fresh dill. Drizzle over a little more oil and serve each bowl with a tapenade toast.