Cold Cucumber Soup
Cool and packed with herbs, this cold Cucumber Soup is the perfect overnight recipe. Made with Greek yogurt for the creamiest texture and prepped in just 10 minutes, this soup is a bright, refreshing blend of flavors, perfect for a hot day.
📌 Quick Glance at this Cucumber Soup Recipe
- 😋 Flavor Profile: Cool and refreshing with creamy tang from yogurt, bright lemon, and fresh herbs with a subtle garlic bite
- 🕒 Total Time: 10 minutes prep + overnight (8 hours) to chill
- 🥄 Texture: Smooth, creamy, and slightly thick
- 👩🍳 Best For: Hot weather meals, light lunches, or a make-ahead appetizer
- 💡 Pro Tip: Let it chill overnight if possible - the flavors deepen, and the texture becomes noticeably smoother and more balanced
Summarize & Save This Content On
With a trio of herbs and subtle lemony flavor, this cold cucumber soup is made in a blender to cut back on prep time. The soup then chills overnight to maximize its flavor, making it the best kind of make-ahead recipe, almost like this Irish beef stew that tastes even better the next day.
For the spring months, when I'm ready to transition from all my favorite winter soup recipes, this cucumber dill soup is the first one I reach for.
Why This Recipe Works
- Flavor & Consistency Improve After Chilling: Giving the cucumber yogurt soup 8 hours of chill time ensures the flavors mesh together and the texture thickens up.
- Unique Flavor: With the addition of red wine vinegar paired with lemon juice, the soup has a bright and fresh taste to it, almost like my lemon orzo soup.
- Easy to make: There's no cooking or major kitchen skills required for this soup. In fact, all you need to do is blend everything together, season it, and let the soup chill before it's ready to serve.
Ingredients + Substitutions
- English Cucumbers: This type of cucumber works best for soup as they have fewer seeds, contain less water, a thinner skin, and have a sweeter flavor (less bitterness). I use these same cucumbers in my cucumber gazpacho recipe.
- Yogurt: Greek yogurt is used so that the soup ends up ultra-thick and creamy. Though regular yogurt can work, it will result in a thinner texture.
- Herbs: Fresh herbs work best and will bring a better, brighter flavor to the cucumber soup recipe, just like in this creamy zucchini basil soup. I tested with both fresh and dried dill. I found that 1 ½ tablespoons of dried dill worked great as a replacement. It softened during the chill time and didn't contribute an unappealing texture, but delivered plenty of dill flavor.
- Lemon: You'll need both the juice and the zest for the recipe. I find it's much easier to zest the lemon first and then juice it! This way, I can use the lemon for both. If you love the bright flavors of lemon in soup, try my lentil soup with spinach and this lemon orzo chicken soup.
- Red Wine Vinegar: Adds more complexity and acidity to the cucumber soup than using just lemon alone.
- Shallot: Gives a subtle, earthy taste. This can be substituted with 1-2 tablespoons of red onion soaked in water to soften the flavor. Just make sure to drain the water before blending.
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Dietary Modifications & Variations
- Spicy: If you want a bit of a spicier soup, sprinkle some red pepper flakes into the seasonings. Or, whip up this spicy gazpacho.
- Vegan: To make the cold cucumber soup recipe vegan, you'll need to use vegan Greek yogurt or cashew yogurt. The texture will be slightly different with this swap.
- Extra creamy: For a thicker, even creamy texture, blend ½ an avocado into the soup before chilling.
How to Make Cucumber Soup
You need to prepare your cucumbers in advance by slicing them in half, removing their seeds, and then roughly chopping them. You can peel them if that's preferred, but I like the extra nutrition they contribute and the more intense color they give the soup.
Step 1: Add to the Food Processor. Add all the soup ingredients to a food processor, except the olive oil.
Step 2: Blend. Blend the ingredients until they're pureed. Scrape the sides as needed.
Step 3: Drizzle the Oil. As the cucumber yogurt soup blends, drizzle the olive oil in. By slowly adding the oil as the processor or blender is in motion emulsifies the oil, creating a rich and creamy texture.
Step 4: Season and Chill. Allow the soup to chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours before serving. Season the soup as needed.
Lyn's Top Tips
- Scrape the sides: You'll need to scrape the sides a bit to ensure everything blends smoothly. Do this 1-2 times between blending.
- Texture: Only blend the soup to your personal preference. If you prefer it a bit chunkier you can use a food processor or pulse using a blender. For a smoother soup, use a high-speed blender or extend the blending time using a regular blender.
- Taste before serving: Refrigeration dulls the flavor of the soup. I recommend checking the flavor of the soup after it's had time to chill as the flavors are more muted when the soup is cold.
- Zesting: Zest your lemon before you juice it so that you only need one lemon. Also, make sure not to zest the white part of the rind, which can be bitter.
- Storing: The chilled cucumber soup will stay fresh in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, it may thin out a bit as the cucumbers release more juice. Give it a good stir before re-serving.
Soup-er Toppings & Serving Suggestions
Since the soup needs to chill for at least 8 hours, it's the perfect meal prep recipe for Sunday night dinners, as you'll spend less time in the kitchen. When the soup is ready to serve, ladle it into bowls and add a drizzle of olive oil and garnish it with any of the fresh herbs.
- In the summer, it's great paired with a sandwich. Try it with a Brie grilled cheese or chicken club sandwich for a complete dinner.
- It makes a light lunch when served with these crispy goat cheese balls or a tomato ricotta toast.
Cucumber Soup Recipe FAQs
No, unfortunately, you can't freeze cucumber yogurt soup as the yogurt and cucumber both break down upon thawing, and the soup loses its texture.
Either a food processor or a blender will work to make chilled soup. A blender will give a smoother texture, but a food processor can be used to initially chop the vegetables, and then an immersion blender can finish off the recipe and make it creamy.
Cucumber soup can become bitter if the cucumber itself is bitter, which usually happens in the stem of the cucumber or the skin. Make sure to taste your cucumber beforehand and peel it if needed. To counter the bitterness once the soup is made, add a splash more balsamic vinegar and lemon juice to the mixture.
Cold Cucumber Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 large English cucumbers seeded and roughly chopped
- 2 cups plain whole milk Greek yogurt
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ shallot
- Zest from ½ lemon
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ⅓ cup baby dill loosely packed + more to garnish, can sub 1 ½ tablespoons dried dill
- ⅓ cup basil leaves loosely packed + more to garnish
- ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves loosely packed
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt + more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper + more to taste
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil + more to garnish
Instructions
- Add everything but the olive oil to a food processor or blender.
- Blend for 1 minute or until pureed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl or blender.
- Blend for another 1-2 minutes. As it blends, slowly drizzle in the olive oil.
- Transfer to a container, cover, and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Season to taste with more lemon juice, salt, and pepper after refrigeration.
- Enjoy cold, drizzled with olive oil and garnished with fresh herbs.
Recipe Tips
- Yogurt first: To make it easier on your food processor, add the yogurt into the machine first. This way, nothing gets stuck at the bottom, and the result is a creamy texture.
- Bitterness: Some cucumbers are more bitter than others. Give yours a quick taste before blending, and know that most of the bitterness is concentrated at the stem end and the skin. Omit those parts if needed.
- Taste test: Give the soup a taste before you pour it into the container. Add more lemon juice, salt, or pepper as needed.
