Cold soup for hot days

When the mercury's rising, the last thing you feel like is soup, right? Not so, at least, not when the soup's cold and refreshing, like a good gazpacho, say, or the one I made the other day, 'summer soup,' a recipe derived from Polish tradition. Basically a cold beetroot and cucumber soup, it tastes wonderful, looks great and slips down a treat on those hot summer's evenings like we've been having recently. What was really nice too for us was that just about every ingredient came fresh out of the garden. And it's easy to make. Here's my variation on the classic recipe. Serves four. Best made the day before it's served and left to rest in the fridge overnight so flavours intensify.
Take two small beets, together with their leaves. Peel and chop the beets, wash and chop the leaves. Chop half a red onion, and two garlic cloves. Fry these in some butter or oil, add the beets and their leaves, stir, add salt, pepper, stock(I used chicken stock but vegetable stock is good too.) Simmer till beet is soft, mash vegies a little(but not too much, I think the soup is nicer with chunkier bits in it.) Take off stove and let cool. Meanwhile, chop a small cucumber(or half a big one) in small chunks. Chop some dill. In a bowl combine some sour cream and yoghurt(more sour cream than yoghurt), about 2/3 of a cup in all. Add the cucumber and dill. When soup is completely cold, add the sour cream/cucumber mix, stir well, put in fridge and leave overnight.
Fantastic as an entree for a light summer dinner, or as a lunch dish.

When the mercury's rising, the last thing you feel like is soup, right? Not so, at least, not when the soup's cold and refreshing, like a good gazpacho, say, or the one I made the other day, 'summer soup,' a recipe derived from Polish tradition. Basically a cold beetroot and cucumber soup, it tastes wonderful, looks great and slips down a treat on those hot summer's evenings like we've been having recently. What was really nice too for us was that just about every ingredient came fresh out of the garden. And it's easy to make. Here's my variation on the classic recipe. Serves four. Best made the day before it's served and left to rest in the fridge overnight so flavours intensify.
Take two small beets, together with their leaves. Peel and chop the beets, wash and chop the leaves. Chop half a red onion, and two garlic cloves. Fry these in some butter or oil, add the beets and their leaves, stir, add salt, pepper, stock(I used chicken stock but vegetable stock is good too.) Simmer till beet is soft, mash vegies a little(but not too much, I think the soup is nicer with chunkier bits in it.) Take off stove and let cool. Meanwhile, chop a small cucumber(or half a big one) in small chunks. Chop some dill. In a bowl combine some sour cream and yoghurt(more sour cream than yoghurt), about 2/3 of a cup in all. Add the cucumber and dill. When soup is completely cold, add the sour cream/cucumber mix, stir well, put in fridge and leave overnight.
Fantastic as an entree for a light summer dinner, or as a lunch dish.