Hot weather = cold soup

Well, it was Freedom Day (tm) yesterday, and I spent it doing just exactly the same things as normal. No plans to change anything chez nous, not at least until we're the requisite period past our second jabs. Work is talking about a 50/50 return to the office from September, but with the emphasis on no-one being forced in (unless their role really demands it). The unending tedium of it all is starting to get to me. Or maybe that's the heat.

As is traditional in a heat wave, I've been at the chilled soup again. We had vague Vichyssoise on Saturday, gazpacho on Sunday and chilled beetroot tonight, but last night I tried something new from the tried-and-tested recipe source that is 'something from the Guardian Saturday 'Feast' supplement read out to me over the phone (well, Zoom) by my dad'. True to form, he read the ingredients list, hazarded a guess at the method by looking at the illustration, and I made half a mental note of the key points. 

So, may I present to you Cucumber-And-Other-Green-Things-Chilled-Soup-With-Dairy?

Cucumber-And-Other-Green-Things-Chilled-Soup-With-Dairy

Ingredients:

• Half a cucu (more would have been good, had I had it)
• 1 green pepper
• handful frozen peas, gently thawed
• handful frozen broad beans, ditto
• mint, chives, or other green herbs (dill and/or basil would be good)
• good slosh of leftover brine from a jar of gherkins (or actual vinegar and salt if you're fancy)
• olive oil, generous slug
• splodge of yoghurt, second splodge to serve
• radishes, to garnish

Method:

• Blend together everything except the radishes.
• Slice and salt the radishes
  
• Serve the soup with the radishes and a splodge of yoghurt.

It is a very pretty meal.

Totally gratuitous inclusion of the gorgeous evening light in the garden.

Tomorrow I may branch out into salad. No promises.