Hot summer days call for cold, refreshing, and tasty soups that remind you why heat it not such bad a thing. I mean, without hot days you might not want to eat a chilled soup, right?
This month, we turn to the cucumber for pulling off the neat trick of turning an otherwise abundant, non-glamorous vine-grown vegetable (actually, a fruit, if you want to be scientifically accurate) into a crowd-pleasing summer supper center piece. This chilled soup is creamy, does not separate, and could just as easily be served out of a wide-mouthed mason jar, as it could from a lovely ceramic bowl.
I found the recipe we feature this month in a random Google search for “cucumber soup made with coconut milk.” My go-to cucumber soup recipe leans on coconut milk, lime and cilantro, but no matter how long I blend the ingredient together, it always separates. When I found the words ‘creamy’ and ‘gazpacho’ in the description for the recipe below by Thomas Pagot from Full of Plants, I looked more closely and was enamored to see cashews as one of the main ingredients.
The versatile cashew is my favorite “not really a nut” nuts. I use them almost every day – on my salads, on cereal, and as a quick snack. Soaked and then blended, cashews are a healthy substitute for cream and so help bind things together. So yes, this recipe calls for soaked cashews, which you can do either overnight OR in an hour using boiling water. I purchase mine in one pound bags, opting for “raw pieces” because these are less expensive than raw whole ones. You can also find cashews in bulk bins, just stay away from the salted and roasted ones. You want raw.
This recipe is called ‘gazpacho’ – an Arabic word meaning “soaked bread,” an ingredient necessary for making traditional Spanish gazpacho – due to its viscosity, imparted by the cashews, instead of bread. The ingredient line-up is a bit dense, but worth it, although I didn’t have mint, so left it out (and did not regret it). Which is a reminder to all: feel free to play around with the ingredients. Recipes, like routes on a map, are just guidelines. Enjoy!I
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews soaked overnight OR soaked in boiling water for 1-2 hours
- 2 medium cucumbers
- 1/4 cup full-fat coconut milk
- 2 tbsp pesto
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp white miso (sold as a paste and available at most grocery stories)
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
- 4-5 mint leaves
- for topping, if you prefer: cucumber slices, toasted pine nuts, basil leaves
Directions
1. Soak the cashews. Start by soaking the cashews in cold water overnight. You can speed up the process by pouring boiling water over the cashews and letting them soak for 2-3 hours. Once the cashews are soft, rinse them and drain them.
2. Prepare the cucumbers. Start by cleaning the cucumbers under cold water. Pat them dry and slice them in half lengthwise. Next, use a spoon or small scoop to scrape out the seeds. Discard the seeds and chop the cucumbers into thick slices.
3. Add all of the ingredients to a blender. Transfer the drained cashews and sliced cucumber to a high-speed blender. Add the coconut milk, vegan pesto, lemon juice, miso, maple syrup, garlic, salt, ground black pepper, and fresh mint leaves.
4. Blend until smooth. Blend on high speed for 1-2 minutes or until the consistency is very smooth. Taste the gazpacho and adjust the seasonings to your liking.
5. Refrigerate. Finally, transfer the gazpacho to a bowl or saucepan and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, preferably 6 hours.
Recipe credit: Creamy cucumber gazpacho