Chill and Sip
Cold soup is a refreshing option for summer produce
Seinfeld fans still remember the “No Soup for You!” episode in which a cantankerous soup vendor bans Elaine from his shop for a year. ❚ And when the temperatures climb, it’s easy to adopt a “no soup for me” attitude. ❚ On a hot summer day, soup is the last thing many of us think about. But die-hard soup fans find that chilled soups are a great way to put seasonal summer produce to work in a cool, delicious and healthy way.
The OG of cold soups
Any discussion of cold soup has to begin with the original: gazpacho. This classic was a staple in the Andalusian region of Spain, where it was made with a mortar and pestle.
It’s thought that Christopher Columbus took the soup made with bread, garlic and vinegar with him on his voyages; when he returned with tomatoes and peppers, gazpacho began to evolve into its current form. Still a staple in Spanish homes, it’s said that if it’s summer in Spain, there’s gazpacho in the refrigerator.
While today’s food processors and blenders make whipping up a batch of gazpacho quick and easy, purists still use the old-school method to pound and crush ingredients and avoid the foam that often accompanies machine blending.
There’s an old Spanish saying/song lyric: “De gazpacho no kay empacho,” which translates to “from gazpacho you get no stomachaches” but has also come to mean “You can never have too much gazpacho!”
Traditional gazpacho features tomatoes, peppers, onions and vinegar, but there are many variations, including
Ajoblanco, made with white garlic, bread, almonds, olive oil and sometimes grapes. Salmorejo is a creamy blend of tomatoes, bread, olive oil, garlic and vinegar.
Recipes vary from region to region, and gazpacho can serve as a starter to a meal or as a main course. Topped with pieces of your favorite protein — think crab, shrimp or chicken — and a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt, any savory cold soup can be made hearty and filling enough to serve as a meal.
Fruit-based cold soups that feature, for example, cantaloupe or cherries can serve as healthy, refreshing dessert on a hot summer day.
Soups for all seasons
David Jurena swears he came up with the idea for his Soup Market business about two months before the famous Seinfeld episode aired. He had been a private chef and café manager when a conversation with a former kitchen colleague evolved into a business idea.
“I worked with a guy who said ‘if I could make soup every day for the rest of my life, I’d be happy,’“he recalls. “It took us two years to find the money and get a kitchen and get everything rolling. On April Fool’s Day in 1998, the business officially launched.”
Initially the business was focused on wholesale, home delivery and farmers market sales; the first Soup Market store opened in 2004. There are now five locations, and Jurena plans to continue to expand.
The Soup Market has a devoted following of fans (soupies?) who appreciate unique flavors — Saffron Potato Leek with Sweet Potatoes, for example — along with popular standards like chicken noodle and chicken and dumplings.
This time of year, a popular flavor is a chilled watermelon mango soup. The recipe was devised by a former kitchen manager, based on a soup she had in New Orleans.
“It’s been on the menu for three or four years,” Jurena says. “It’s quite a good seller.”
But like Wisconsin summers, it’s a short-lived treat. “We only do it in June, July and August, and we rotate it every couple of weeks. It’s vegan, dairy-free and gluten free.”
A blooming young chef
How many toddlers eat gazpacho? Ezra Bloom does. His mother, Arielle, a speech pathologist at Children’s Hospital, knows that getting kids to help with meal prep starts them on the road to good eating. So she brings 2 1⁄2- year-old Ezra (and 4-month-old baby Gideon) into the kitchen on a regular basis to “help” her cook.
“As someone who works with young children, I see that there’s so much for them to learn in the kitchen,” she says. “I like when kids can learn from their day-today activities.”
While baking is a favorite, it’s even better when vegetables are involved. That’s why Arielle was happy to find this recipe, with tomatoes, cucumber and green pepper.
Ready, set, blend
The beauty of cold soup is it’s fast and easy to throw everything into a blender or food processor.
“Ezra is fascinated by our Vitamix, so I looked up a recipe where he could help me with all the steps. I line up the vegetables in bowls and he dumps them in. Vitamix is particular about the order because it makes the soup blend better. It’s fun for Ezra to work on following those directions.”
Says Ezra: “I push the button, then cover my ears.” Like many families, the Blooms subscribe to a local CSA (community supported agriculture). Geoff Bloom, a marketer with S.C. Johnson, looks forward to the weekly box of produce from Springdale Farm, which recently included the cucumbers used in the gazpacho.
“We eat a lot of cucumbers in this house; we all love them, even Ezra loves them,” Geoff says.
No shortcuts
The Soup Market features other cold soups in its summer rotation, including cucumber mint and cucumber, yogurt and dill. Jurena offers a few tips for making the best soup, cold or hot.
“The biggest thing that works for us is we make our own stock,” he said. “It really lets the flavor of the soup come through.
“The more you can do from scratch, the better product you’re going to have. There are shortcuts like using canned broth and pre-cut vegetables, but the more time and care you put into soup, the better the result will be.”
Jurena also advises home cooks to use recipes as guides and make changes according to personal preference.
“People should be adventurous and not be afraid to change an ingredient or substitute something. They just might find something they like better.”