The Weeknight Kitchen · No-Cook Starter · Serves 4

Chilled Cucumber
& Dill Soup

A cold, pale-green soup you make in a blender and forget in the fridge — the starter that leaves the stove completely free for whatever comes next.

~2 hrs total 10 min hands-on Blender method

Spoon cost

Time ●●○○○ Anytime

VegetarianGluten-Free

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Salt it boldly, then chill it hard — cold mutes seasoning. A soup that tastes right at room temperature will taste flat straight out of the fridge, so season it a notch past comfortable before it goes in. It needs at least two hours to get properly cold; overnight is better. Taste it again just before serving and expect it to want a little more salt and lemon.

Before you start

Get these into the state the recipe asks for first — the steps that use them won't wait.

Cucumbers washed and cut into rough chunks — the blender does the rest, so the pieces only need to fit
Dill picked, scallions trimmed, garlic grated — everything goes in at once and the blender runs for a minute

Method

Cook's notes

Full-fat yogurt or nothing. Low-fat and nonfat yogurt make a soup that tastes sour and watery instead of cool and creamy, and they are more likely to separate as the soup sits.

Raw garlic grows. One small clove is right for a soup that will sit overnight — it will be noticeably sharper in the morning than it was in the blender. If you are serving within the hour you can add a second clove.

Serve it cold, in cold bowls. Five minutes with the bowls in the freezer makes a real difference to how the first spoonful reads.

What it goes with: anything that needs the stove. I like it before brown-butter scallops or seared scallops, because it is entirely finished before the pan ever gets hot.

Make ahead: keeps 3 days covered in the fridge. Stir before serving; a little separation is normal.

If it is too thick or too thin: cold water thins it without dulling the flavor much, and a spoonful more yogurt thickens it. Do the adjusting cold, not warm.

Easier, if you like

Skip the knife work entirely — cucumbers go into the blender in big rough chunks, and the scallions and dill can be torn by hand.
No fresh dill? Use flat-leaf parsley plus a small pinch of dried dill. It is a different soup, but a good one.

Vegetarian and gluten-free as written; easily vegan

Vegan / dairy-free: swap the Greek yogurt for an unsweetened plain coconut or cashew yogurt — Cocojune Plain or Forager Project Unsweetened Plain, both in the refrigerated yogurt case. Check the label for added sugar, which ruins it.

Gluten-free: naturally gluten-free.

Herb swaps: mint in place of half the dill makes it brighter and more Middle Eastern; a little tarragon makes it read French.