Cups of cool

If slurping a bowl of soup right now sounds as enjoyable as skinny-dipping in hot lava, it’s simply time to reconsider what you’re putting in your bowl. Soup, it may come as a surprise, does not need to be served at tongue-scorching temperatures. If you’ve never tried chilled soup, there’s no better occasion than these steamy days of summer.

Plus, there’s no better time to whip up concentrated, flavorful soup than when produce is overflowing from markets and gardens everywhere.

Think gazpacho, bursting with juicy tomatoes. Or a refreshing chilled avocado puree. Or, for a sweeter option, a cold strawberry soup.

“They’re generally (made from) fruits or green vegetables that when you heat them up, they turn brown,” says Brian Hutchins, the chef at Mizuna. “You have to do something to give it some depth. In doing that, you have to focus on the flavor elements.”

For a special summer solstice dinner at Mizuna, Hutchins and his crew prepared a luscious chilled pea soup that drew raves. The soup started with a base of well-cooked Walla Walla onions and Yukon gold potatoes. Once the onions and potatoes were very soft, Hutchins blended them with vegetable stock. Make sure it’s high-quality stock, he says, “The stock is one of the most important parts.”

The base was chilled while the pea puree was prepared.

“About three of us, the night before, stood over a 35-pound box of peas and shucked the whole case,” Hutchins says. The peas were blanched in salted water and then pureed with white truffle oil before being combined with the onion-potato base.

The finished soup came drizzled with crème fraîche and garnished with a couple of meaty morel mushrooms.

And, here’s a tip from Hutchins: Let the soup sit out for just a bit to take the chill off.

“It’s better to serve them closer to room temperature,” he says. “It’s kind of like cheese, the flavors seem to develop more … Unless you’re doing a fruit soup. Those are great ice cold.”

At Soulful Soups, 117 N. Howard St. in downtown Spokane, owner Makayla Hamilton has a cold soup in her line-up every day during the summer – even though they’re far from her top-sellers.

“They’re a hard-sell,” Hamilton says. “People around here just aren’t familiar with them.”

But, often, once they try a sip of her gazpacho or her melon-pineapple concoction, they’re sold.

Hamilton’s gazpacho, packed with tomatoes, green pepper, cucumber, celery and avocado has been particularly popular.

“Whatever is in your garden, throw it together,” she says.

Besides being tasty and refreshing, cold soups (as long as you steer clear of cream-based ones) are healthy, too.

Hamilton should know.

She has lost 175 pounds in the last two-and-a-half years on Weight Watchers. Filling up on low-fat, fiber-packed soups has been helpful, she says.

When it comes to making chilled soups in your own kitchen, chefs have some simple advice. Start with the freshest produce you can find.

“The big thing is good ingredients,” Hutchins says. “Most of the time you can’t go wrong if your ingredients are good.”

Seek out flavors to contrast with those fruits and vegetables. Fresh herbs or balsamic vinegar or aromatic ginger or a splash of liqueur.

Depending on the variety, chilled soup could be served at the start of a meal, as a palate-cleanser between courses or as a refreshing dessert.

It can be stored in a pitcher in the refrigerator, and you don’t need any special equipment to whip up a batch (though a blender or food processor is handy for pureed soups). And if you’re going to be making lots of blended soups (hot or cold), you may want to look into getting an immersion, or hand, blender. That’s a motorized stick that can be put directly into a soup pot to blend the mixture.

Hamilton still remembers the gloppy mess created by trying to puree her first big pot of soup in a blender.

“I swear and live by a hand blender,” she says.

Cucumber Dill Soup

From Makayla Hamilton, owner of Soulful Soups

2 large cucumbers, peeled and chopped

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1/3 cup dill, chopped

1 tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons white pepper

2 tablespoons sugar

1 large (32-ounce) tub plain yogurt

Put all ingredients in a blender and mix well. Or put them in a large pitcher and puree using a hand blender. Chill and serve.

Yield: About 5 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 158 calories, 3 grams fat (1.8 grams saturated, 17 percent fat calories), 10 grams protein, 23 grams carbohydrate, 11 milligrams cholesterol, 1.8 grams dietary fiber, 1,529 milligrams sodium.

Cold Strawberry Soup

From “The Culinary Institute of America Book of Soups”

4 cups strawberries

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup white wine, light rum or vodka

3 cups heavy cream

3 cups apple juice

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup honey

Reserve one large berry for garnish. Hull the remaining berries and combine with the sugar and wine or liquor. Refrigerate for two to 24 hours.

Puree the berries with their liquid. Add the remaining ingredients, mix well, cover and refrigerate, at least two hours.

Cut the reserved strawberry into paper-thin slices. Serve the soup in chilled bowls, garnished with strawberry slices.

Yield: 8 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 475 calories, 33 grams fat (20 grams saturated, 61 percent fat calories), 2.4 grams protein, 44 grams carbohydrate, 122 milligrams cholesterol, 1.8 grams dietary fiber, 38 milligrams sodium.

Chilled Cream of Avocado Soup

From “The Culinary Institute of America Book of Soups”

2 large ripe avocados

4-5 cups vegetable broth or water, divided

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

Juice of 1 lime

1 cup plain yogurt or heavy cream

Salt, to taste

Freshly ground white pepper, to taste

2 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced, optional

2 corn tortillas cut into strips, fried, optional

Cut each avocado in half from top to bottom, following the contour of the pit. Remove the pit and scoop out the flesh.

Puree the flesh in a food processor or blender with 4 cups of the broth, the chili powder, the coriander and lime juice until very smooth. If the soup is too thick, add more broth. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and chill thoroughly.

Just before serving, blend in the yogurt or heavy cream. Season with salt and white pepper. Serve in chilled bowls, garnished with the tomato and tortilla strips, if using.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving, based on 6 (using vegetable broth and plain lowfat yogurt): 166 calories, 11 grams fat (2 grams saturated, 60 percent fat calories), 5 grams protein, 13 grams carbohydrate, 2.5 milligrams cholesterol, 3.4 grams dietary fiber, 713 milligrams sodium.

Ruth’s Gazpacho

From Makayla Hamilton, owner of Soulful Soups. You can add just about any vegetables from the farmers’ market or your garden to this chilled soup. Here’s a suggested combination:

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped (any color)

1 cucumber, peeled and chopped

2 cups celery, chopped

1 bunch green onions, chopped

2 avocados, chopped

1 cup red wine vinaigrette (more or less, to taste)

2 or 3 (46-ounce) cans tomato juice, depending on preferred soup thickness

Salt and pepper, to taste

Put all ingredients in a pot or other container. Chill. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Yield: 10 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 239 calories, 18 grams fat (3 grams saturated, 62 percent fat calories), 4 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 5.6 grams dietary fiber, 300 milligrams sodium.