Cold Cucumber Soup With Feta and Greek Yogurt
This cold cucumber soup came out of a poolside lunch on my honeymoon in Greece, and I have been making it every summer since. It takes 10 minutes and a blender, no stove involved, which is great when it is 90 degrees and cooking sounds like a punishment. Cucumber, Greek yogurt, feta, mint and a little avocado for body. That is it.
Fair warning up front: this is a starter, not a main. It is light, cold and refreshing, and it is not going to keep you full on its own. I will get into what to serve alongside it further down, because that part matters more than most recipes admit.
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The Poolside Soup in Mykonos That Started This
The original was served to me by the pool in Mykonos with a glass of cold sparkling wine and a salad and I thought about it the entire flight home. I will be honest that I have never fully replicated it, but it's delicious in its own right. Greek produce is on another level and their yogurt is not really comparable to what most of us can buy here. Cucumbers grown in that heat taste like a different vegetable.
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So this is my version, built from what is actually available at a normal grocery store. It is very good. It is just not Mykonos good, but then what is? I have made it everywhere from a cookout to a rented kitchen in northern Michigan and it disappears every time.
Ingredients for Cold Cucumber Soup
Eleven ingredients, and most of them are probably already in your kitchen in July.
- English cucumber. Thin skin, minimal seeds, no peeling required. A regular slicing cucumber works but you will want to peel it and scoop the seeds, which I explain below.
- Greek yogurt. Full fat, unflavored. This is the ingredient most likely to sabotage you, because a lot of what is sold here is nonfat and loaded with sugar. Read the label. Most plain Greek yogurts land around six carbs per cup. If you can find sheep's milk yogurt, use it, and you will get noticeably closer to the Greek version.
- Feta. Buy the block in brine rather than the pre-crumbled kind. Pre-crumbled feta is coated in anti-caking starch and it blends chalky.
- Fresh mint. Half a cup sounds like a lot until you taste it. Mint is what makes this soup read as bright rather than just cold.
- Avocado. Half of one, for texture. It is what keeps the soup from separating into cucumber water and everything else.
- Onion and garlic. Raw, so go light. One clove is genuinely enough.
- Lemon, zest and juice. Both. The zest does more work here than the juice.
- Extra virgin olive oil. Half a cup, and it will be the loudest flavor in the bowl. Use one you would happily eat on bread.
- Water, sea salt and white pepper. White pepper rather than black, purely so you do not end up with dark flecks in a pale green soup.
How to Make Cold Cucumber Soup
Everything except the garnish goes in the blender at once. I use a Vitamix, but any decent blender will get there if you let it run longer than feels necessary. Blend past the point where it looks done. Cucumbers release a surprising amount of liquid as they break down, so a mixture that looks too thick at 20 seconds will be pourable and glossy at 45.
Two things worth knowing before you start. First, if you are using a standard cucumber instead of an English one, drag a spoon down the center and scoop the seeds out. The seeds are almost entirely water and they will thin your soup and add a faint bitterness. It takes about five seconds and it is the difference between silky and sad.
Second, chill it properly. The recipe says two hours minimum and I mean minimum. Overnight is better. This soup tastes flat at room temperature and completely different once it is really cold and there is no shortcut around that. Make it in the morning for dinner, or the night before.
Hold back a quarter of the cucumber, a little feta, some mint and the rest of the avocado for the top. The garnish is not decoration. A completely smooth cold soup gets monotonous by the fourth spoonful, and a bit of crunch fixes it.
What to Serve With Cold Cucumber Soup
Here is the part most cucumber soup recipes skip. A serving of this is 228 calories and 4 grams of protein. That is fine for what it is, which is a first course. It is not a meal, and if you eat a bowl of it and call that dinner you will be in the pantry at nine o'clock.
I am not going to try to engineer protein into the soup itself. You cannot meaningfully load a blended cucumber without turning it into something that is no longer cucumber soup. What you can do is put it next to protein, which is how it was served to me in the first place.
The pairings I actually use:
- Grilled chicken. A 6 ounce breast is about 46 grams of protein for roughly 280 calories, which takes the whole plate to 50 grams and change. Lemon, oregano and olive oil is all the seasoning it needs next to this soup.
- Grilled or seared salmon. Five ounces runs about 33 grams of protein. The fat in the salmon plays well against how sharp and cold the soup is.
- Grilled shrimp or lamb. Both are excellent here and both lean straight into the Greek thing the soup is already doing.
- A real salad. The Mykonos version came with one, and that combination is still how I like it best. Several of my summer salad recipes work, and the watermelon feta one in particular echoes the feta and mint.
If you are grilling anyway, make a batch of keto tzatziki at the same time. It is the same cucumber, yogurt, garlic and lemon in a different form, so nothing goes to waste and the whole meal hangs together. For how much protein you should actually be aiming for at a given meal, my protein calculator for women will give you a real number rather than a guess.
Storing and Making It Ahead
This keeps about three days in a sealed container in the fridge and it is better on day two once the garlic has settled down. Some separation is normal. Stir it or give it a two second pulse in the blender and it comes right back.
Do not freeze it. The yogurt breaks and the cucumber turns to water on thaw, and no amount of blending recovers it. Taste and adjust the salt and lemon right before serving rather than when you make it, because cold dulls both and what tasted balanced at room temperature will taste underseasoned straight from the fridge.
More Cold Soups for Hot Weather
- Creamy Raw Zucchini and Avocado Chilled Soup, which I have been making since my vegetarian years and is even less work than this one.
- Tomato, Watermelon and Cucumber Gazpacho for when you want something sweeter and more assertive.
- Keto Tzatziki Sauce, the same flavors in dip form.
Cold Cucumber Soup Recipe
Chilled Cucumber Feta Soup
Ingredients
- 1 large cucumber, english variety
- ½ cup feta, crumbled, extra for garnish
- ½ cup greek yogurt
- ½ cup mint leaves, extra for garnish
- ½ medium onion
- 1 clove garlic, to taste
- 1 medium lemon, zest and juice
- ½ medium avocado, extra for garnish
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup water
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt, to taste
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a Vitamix or blender, add all ingredients except for a quarter of the cucumber.
- Reserve 1/4 cucumber, some chopped mint, the remainder of avocado and some feta for garnish.
- Blend until smooth.
- Chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Garnish bowls with cucumber, mint, avocado and feta cheese.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can you freeze cold cucumber soup?
No. The yogurt breaks on thaw and the cucumber releases its water, leaving you with a grainy, separated mixture that blending will not fix. Make it fresh and eat it within three days.
Do you have to peel the cucumbers?
Not if you use English or Persian cucumbers, which have thin skins that blend smooth and add a little color. Peel standard slicing cucumbers, since their skin is thicker and can turn bitter when blended.
Why is my cold cucumber soup watery?
Almost always the seeds. Cucumber seeds are mostly water and they thin the soup as they break down. Scoop them out with a spoon before blending. Under-blending also does it, since the soup only reaches its creamy texture once the cucumber fully breaks down, which takes longer than most people let it run.
Can you make cold cucumber soup without yogurt?
I have not tested a dairy-free version of this one, so I cannot promise results. In theory a thick unsweetened coconut or cashew yogurt would carry the texture, and you would need to replace the feta too, which means losing most of the salt and tang. You would likely need extra lemon and salt to compensate.
Is cold cucumber soup healthy?
It is mostly cucumber, yogurt and olive oil, so it is nutrient dense and low in carbohydrate at about 4 net carbs per serving. It is also low in protein at 4 grams, which means it works better as a first course next to grilled chicken or fish than as a standalone meal.
What is the difference between cold cucumber soup and gazpacho?
Traditional gazpacho is tomato based and often uses stale bread for body, which makes it heartier. Cold cucumber soup is built on cucumber with a yogurt base, so it is lighter, creamier and naturally gluten free. They are cousins rather than the same dish.
How long does cold cucumber soup need to chill?
Two hours is the minimum and overnight is better. This soup tastes flat until it is very cold and don't rush that step. Make it in the morning if you want it for dinner.