Velouté d’asperges | Cream of Asparagus Soup

This soup, so they say, is reminiscent of the creations of the 18th century French grande cuisine. Asparagus was introduced by the Italians during the Renaissance, and was part of a change in eating habits that saw vegetables introduced into grande cuisine. Previously they had been considered the food of peasants.

This soup is thick, smooth and delicate as well as utterly delicious. It is simple to make with easily accessible ingredients. It is the perfect soup for year-round enjoyment, as it can be served cold in Summer and hot in Winter.  We’ve been making this soup since the early 2000’s.

The soup can also be made quickly and easily in any high speed blender that also heats foods as it blends. I have given the instructions for making it this way as well as the usual, stove-top method. In the blender it takes around 15 mins, including cooking the asparagus. When you are using the high speed blender (mine is a Vitamix), then there are no worries about stringy stalks on the asparagus – all is blended into a smooth, perfect soup.

Similar recipes include Spring Onion and Green Pea Soup, Chilled Asparagus Soup, Gentle Asparagus Soup, and Asparagus Raita.

Check out our collection of:

• Four Asparagus Soups for Spring

Browse all of our other Asparagus Soup recipes, our Asparagus recipes, and our French dishes. Or explore our Late Autumn dishes.

Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho

Cold soup is a treasure of Summer weather. Some countries (eg India and the Middle East) have a whole cuisine of cold drinks that are sipped in the extreme weather of the hottest periods of the year, and countries such as Spain have a cuisine of cold soups to slurp in similar weather. Here, we have neither although our weather in Summer equals or exceeds that of those countries. It is a puzzle why that is.

Never fear, here in our little patch of Australia, both cold soups and cold drinks prevail in hot weather.  From the simplest (juice tomatoes with a tiny piece of chill, serve as a soup with basil, spring onions, black pepper, sea salt) to beautiful but out of fashion vichyssoise varieties.

Today we make a Gazpacho style soup with watermelon as well as tomato. It is delicious on a hot Summer evening, eating on the deck or verandah with friends and family. Serve as a soup, or even as a savoury drink, like you might serve a tomato juice – leave the bread out if you are going to serve it this way. Sipped or slurped, it is wonderful.

This is an Ottolenghi recipe, from Plenty More, although I have added some cucumber back into the recipe. I love its juice and can’t imagine a gazpacho without it. It makes a difference. Sometimes, I have also added the juice of zucchinis (surprisingly delicious and cooling) in the past too, because I had a glut of them, and it is delicious. It is such a light and delicious soup, and easy to make – you will want to make it all Summer.

In fact, it is Ottolenghi day on the blog – one of two days per month where we publish all the latest posts of recipes we have tried in our project of cooking from Ottolenghi books – currently we are cooking from Plenty More, but not ignoring his other books completely. Note that I often massage the recipes to suit what is available from our garden and pantry. For the original recipes, check his books and his Guardian column.

Similar recipes include Coriander and Lemongrass Vichyssoise,  Gazpacho,  and Cold Avocado Soup.

Browse all of our Cold Soups and all of our Tomato Soups. Our Ottolenghi dishes from Plenty More are here. We have written about our experiences cooking through this book. Or explore our Mid Summer dishes.

We use Australian measurements: 1 Tblspn = 20ml; 1 cup = 250ml.

Beautiful Cold Avocado Soup

I have a couple of Avocado Soups that I make in Hot Weather. This is one of them. The other is also an amazing cold soup – Avocado and Celery.

This recipe has a little hit of sweet chilli amongst the familiar tastes of garlic, coriander and lemon.  It is an easy soup, not pureed (although you can if you want to), but the ingredients are chopped finely and pulled together with some stock. Make it early in the day for the afternoon or evening – this allows time for flavours to develop.

Have a look at other cold soups too. Try Quick Cucumber and Tomato Cold Soup, Chilled Beetroot Soup, and Cream of Asparagus Soup. Here is how to make a range of easy cold soups in Summer.

Are you after other Avocado recipes? Try Guacamole, Cucumber and Avocado Salad, and Retro Recipes with Avocados.

You might also like all Avocado recipes here. Or check out Cold Soup recipes. Take some time to explore our easy Mid Summer recipes. Feel free to browse recipes from our Retro Recipes series – vegetarian recipes from our first blog from 1995 – 2006.

Simple Beetroot Soup | Hot or Cold

Beetroot soup is great all year round, and can be served hot in Winter and cold in Summer. Beetroot is a cook’s best friend, growing easily in the garden and being versatile in the kitchen.

This is a simple soup, full of the unadulterated flavour of the beets. The cooked beetroot is pureed and then simmered briefly with stock before adding sour cream. There is nothing simpler.

If you would like to make a really light stock for a Summery soup, we recommend this one.

Other cold soups include Beautiful Cold Avocado Soup, Tomato and Cucumber Cold Soup, and Avocado and Celery Cold Soup.

If you are looking for other Beetroot Soups, these are similar: Chilled Beetroot Soup, and an amazing Indian Beetroot Soup.

You can explore all of our Beetroot Recipes here, and all of our Soup Recipes here. Or enjoy browsing all of our Late Summer recipes.

Chilled Asparagus Soup

Oh, the hot days of summer! Chilled soups are gorgeous and great for picnics or days at the beach, or just at home. This is a creamy, wonderful, silky soup for those hottest of hot days.

Or really, make this soup at any time of the year when the weather is warm and you can sit in the sunshine. There is no need to wait for Summer.

Some similar recipes that you might enjoy are French Cream of Asparagus Soup, Cream of Asparagus Soup, Quick Tomato and Cucumber Cold Soup, Fantastic Avocado and Celery Cold Soup and Roasted Tomato and Corn Cold Soup for Summer.

You might also like our Cold Soup recipes and our Asparagus recipes. Or explore our easy Early Summer recipes.

Check out our collection of:

• Four Asparagus Soups for Spring

This recipe is one of the vegetarian recipes from our first blog which was in existence from 1995 – 2006.  You can find other recipes from that blog in the Retro Recipes.

Quick Gazpacho

Cold soups are all the rage at our place in Summer – the hot Summer days of over 35C, often over 40C, demand cooling foods, yet we still want them to be nourishing and healthy. In our garden there are often tomatoes to spare, and so making Gazpacho, that Spanish delicious cold soup, makes such sense.

This is a quick version, takes no more than the time it takes to wash the tomatoes and peel the cucumber. I like these ratios, but nothing is fixed and you can play around with this delicious blender formula. Add a few herbs, lemon instead of vinegar, a small amount of fresh green or red chilli. Enjoy yourself as you make variations on this theme.

Are you looking for cold soups? Try this quick Tomato and Cucumber Cold Soup, Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho, Beautiful Cold Avocado Soup, Chilled Beetroot Soup, and Roast Tomato and Corn Cold Soup.

What about Cucumber recipes? Try Cucumber Salad with Ricotta and Capers, Cucumber Raita, and Cucumber Lassi.

Try these Tomato recipes – Red Pepper and Tomato Salad with Crispy Flatbread, Chilli and Lime, Italian Tomato Sauce, and Tomato and Peach Salad.

You can browse all of our Cold Soup recipes, all of our Tomato recipes, and all of our Cucumber recipes. Have a look at our Tomato Soups, Cucumber Soups, or all of our Soups, hot and cold. Or take some time to browse our Late Summer dishes.

South Indian Beetroot Soup

The concept of soup in South India is unusual but not unknown. Even Meenakshi Ammal and Priya Ramkumar covered them in the classic books Cook and See. I have not been able to trace the origins of South Indian Soups – perhaps the British occupation – and many people that I ask deny their existence. But no, they are part of the cuisine, albeit a limited part, and I have been served them in India on several occasions.

Indian soups are basically un-spiced thin but flavoursome broths, with perhaps the addition of some cubed vegetables. This one is from Priya Ramkumar herself, in Vol 4 of Cook and See, and is a beetroot soup that extracts the flavour and colour of beetroot for the soup without including the vegetable. It is surprisingly delicious! I was quite amazed by the flavour of this soup and it has become a favourite. And why would you make soups any differently in a country that produces so many thick, nourishing, soupy, spicy dishes that are eaten as an accompaniment to rice?

Are you after similar Soups? Try Simple Beetroot Soup, Chilled Beetroot Soup and Quick Gazpacho. Or some Beetroot recipes include Beetroot with Yoghurt-Tahini Dressing, Roast Beetroot with Cumin, and Warm Beetroot and Carrot Salad.

Or perhaps some Indian Soups? Try South Indian Spring Onion Soup, South Indian Cauliflower Soup, Light Summery Tomato Soup, South Indian Baby Corn Soup, and Amaranth and Tamarind Soup.

Are you looking for more? Check out our Beetroot Soups, and then for more Indian Soups, browse here. You might like to have a look at our range of Soups here. Or explore all of our Indian dishes. Or cook seasonally with our easy, Mid Spring dishes. Enjoy!

LATE SUMMER Some Easy Cold Soups to Beat Summer Heat | Seasonal Cooking

The hot weather continues in Adelaide with stunning sunrises and sunsets. Cold soups are perfect, and I have stumbled across a great way to prepare them quickly and easily.

Fundamental to my method is the use of a cold press juicer. It juices not only without heat from whirring blades, but also does not aerate and foam the juice like other types of juicers can do. You can use a centrifugal juicer (the usual type) but let the juice sit for a while to lose some of its aeration.

Are you looking for Cold Soups? Try Quick Tomato and Cucumber Cold Soup, Avocado and Celery Soup, and Chilled Beetroot Soup.

What about some juices? Try Watermelon Juice with Ginger and Mint, and Cooling Juices for Summer.

You can find more Cold Soups here and here. Or browse all of our Summer recipes here and here.

Chilled Beetroot Soup

A glorious and colourful start to a meal. Royal red beetroot transformed into a soup. I had fennel flowers sitting on the kitchen bench so these went into the soup as well, with some plain yoghurt.

Similar recipes include Simple Beetroot Soup, Quick Gazpacho, Chilled Asparagus Soup, and South Indian Beetroot Soup.

Feel free to browse our Beetroot recipes and Cold Soup recipes. Find some inspiration in our Late Summer recipes.

Quick Tomato and Cucumber Cold Soup

Cucumber is so cooling in these hot months. With tomato it is even better. This soup is gorgeous. Not quite gazpacho, it is definitely similar. Best eaten chilled, it can have yoghurt stirred through. We first made it in 1998 – that sounds so very long ago. But it has stood the test of time, and as soon as hot weather hits, we make it again.

Our preference is to use tomato purees, pastes or sauces from our freezer – we made them in Autumn to get us through the Winter and Spring months until good tomatoes hit the green grocer shelves again. But it can be made by juicing tomatoes, or even with a can of tomato soup if you are desperate (don’t ever mention that I said that – we usually don’t promote processed foods!)

It is a filling yet cooling hot weather soup.

Similar recipes include Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho.

You might also like our Cucumber recipes and Cold Soup recipes. Check out our easy Late Summer recipes.