Cold Yogurt Soup
It takes about 10 minutes to learn this recipe, and a life time to master.
A friend of mine shared this with me 20+ years ago, I am still tweaking it. There are some variations on this soup, below is a good basic version.
Prep time: 10 – 15 minutes
Chilling/Settling time: 2 hours min. (overnight best)
Equipment:
1. One gallon (about 3.5 liter) Pitcher, preferably with a lid
2. Stirring Spoon (for pitcher)
3. Vegetable Peeler
4. Measuring cup/spoons
5. Hand grater with coarse grates. (I use a tapered 4-sided 3" x 4" x 9" grater with ¼ inch round grates)
6. Pestle and mortar
7. Space in refrigerator for pitcher
Ingredients:
1. Two containers of regular Greek Yogurt 35 oz. (Preferably not fat free or fat reduced, however, in the end, it is up to you.) (That’s about 70 oz. or 2000 grams in total). If you cannot find Greek yogurt, strained yogurt is an acceptable substitute. OR use regular yogurt, but use a lot less water when diluting mixture.
2. One cup of Seedless Dark Raisins
3. Two medium to large Seedless Cucumbers
4. One cup of fresh Radishes
5. Quarter cup of Walnuts
6. Salt
7. Pepper
8. Dried mint flakes (one heaping tablespoon)
9. Fresh mint leaves ¼ cup (optional)
10. Dried tarragon flakes (one tablespoon)
11. Water
Process:
• Peel then grate two medium to large Seedless Cucumbers. (It should come out to about 2 – 3 cups).
(When grating, use the ¼ inch grates and grate on the “short stroke”. That is, hold the cucumber end at 90 degrees on the grater when grating. You are trying to get the shortest ¼ inch strands that you can).
Place shredded cucumbers into pitcher.
• Peel then grate one cup of fresh Radishes.
Place shredded Radishes into pitcher.
• Place all the regular Greek Yogurt (~ 70 oz.) into pitcher.
• Add one cup of Seedless Dark Raisins.
• Add about 35oz of water to the pitcher and slowly thoroughly mix. You are trying to get rid of any clumps of yogurt.
• Crush ¼ cup of walnuts into a fine grain. (Do not turn the walnuts into a powder, think of a fine grain sea salt).
Place the walnuts into pitcher.
• Add two pinches (about 1/8 of a teaspoon) of pepper (fine fresh ground pepper corns if you can)
• Add one heaping tablespoon of dried mint flakes into pitcher
• Optional: Cut ¼ cup of fresh mint leaves into small squares, say about 1/8 or ¼ of an inch square, and then crush or bruise the leaves. What you are trying to do is release the mint oils in the leaves. Do not pulverize the mint! (To be added to dry mint flakes, NOT as an instead of!)
• Add one tablespoon of dried tarragon flakes into pitcher
• Stir
• NOTE: The next two steps have the biggest impact on the dish, almost more than anything else. Read, think, and proceed with deliberation.
• Water:
Add anywhere from 15 to 20 oz. of water to the mixture. Add the water a little bit at a time and stir in-between pours.
In general you are trying to add about 2/3 of your yogurt total in water to the mixture. The amount of water varies and it has a big impact. Different yogurt brands are different, so how much water you add can vary just because of the yogurt brand you are using! (I mostly use studmuffine yogurt, but others are perfectly acceptable).
In general, add less water if any of the following applies to you:
You used a fat free/fat reduced yogurt
You used a non-Greek yogurt
You used fewer cucumbers
You used a smaller amount of yogurt (Here in the Sates some brands sell their large packages in 32 oz. containers. A few, very few, sell in larger than 35 oz. containers)
In general, you can get away with a tad more water if you used more raisins.
You are trying to achieve a consistency of something that is a little thicker than a hardy creamy asparagus or perhaps potato soup.
• Salt
Add about ½ tablespoon of salt to mixture.
In this dish, salt really impacts the final taste of the soup.
Too little salt and some of the flavors don’t escape out from under the yogurt base.
Too much salt and the soup will dehydrate you.
In general, add less salt if you used fewer cucumbers than called for.
In general, you can add a tad more salt if you used more cucumbers than called for.
If you do not care about dehydration, add salt to taste.
(Cucumbers will, overnight, absorb some of the salt. So you could use ¼ teaspoon of salt at this stage and then add up to the remaining ¼ teaspoon after the chilling process.
• Mix
• Place lid on pitcher and put in refrigerator and let it chill overnight. What you are waiting for is for the raisins to absorb water and to swell to about the size of large peas.
• Stir well before serving. Use a soup ladle to serve from the bottom of the pitcher. (You are trying to get a few raisins into ladle.)
• Serve in bowl as an appetizer or as an afternoon refresher on a hot summer day.
• Properly refrigerated in a covered pitcher, the soup will last as long as expiration date of the yogurt.
