Cold Soups for Hot Days

Really hot weather is so unusual here in the Puget Sound region, and especially on Vashon and other islands in the sound, that it really wipes us out. Few of us have air conditioned kitchens. The recipes below require little or no cooking. They taste great cold and supply needed moisture for our sweat-dehydrated bodies.

We tend to think of pumpkin around Halloween, but it’s a good idea to keep a can or two of pumpkin pulp on hand for a really quick and satisfying soup that provides energy for summer activities as well as a cool meal, and comes from the can already cooked.

Cold Pumpkin Curry
Cream Soup
4 servings
Preparation: 5 minutes Cooking: None

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin pulp
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth, divided
½ teaspoon onion salt
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 cup milk or half-and-half cream

Garnish: minced fresh parsley, slivered fresh basil leaves, snipped chives, or thinly sliced green onion tops

In a large mixing bowl, with fork or wooden spoon, combine the pumpkin pulp and most of the broth. Mix about 2 tablespoons of broth with the onion salt and curry powder to make a thin paste. Stir this into the pumpkin and broth mixture. Transfer to a tureen or individual bowls. Garnish with the minced green vegetable.

Should the weather turn cooler, You can quickly heat this soup to steaming in a saucepan on the stove, or with 3 or 4 minutes in the microwave.

Cool Creamy Tomato Soup
4 small servings

1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
2 cups whole milk or part milk and part 1/2 and 1/2 cream
1 green onion, tops only, washed and thinly sliced

Combine tomato sauce and milk in a small tureen. Garnish with sliced green onion tops. Serve with rice crackers or buttered rye bread.

No real chrysanthemum flower has to sacrifice its petals for this soup.

Japanese Chrysanthemum Soup
4 servings

1 block of firm tofu
1 can Campbell’s condensed chicken broth
Basil leaves, optional

Drain tofu. Place on a wooden cutting board. Put a weight on the tofu to force out more moisture. Let rest a few minutes. Remove the weight. Cut the block of tofu in four equal smaller blocks, cutting once lengthwise and once crosswise.

Cut each little block similarly but be careful not to cut all the way down. Carefully transfer each little block to a Japanese rice bowl. Tuck s few basil leaves around the tofu to look like chrysanthemum leaves, sort of.

Pour the chicken broth over the tofu, dividing it among the four bowls. You will see the "chrysanthemum petals" open up. The condensed broth is salty, but the tofu is bland. They complement each other.