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.
- Serves four
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 yogurt
- 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.
