cucumber gazpacho

Cucumber gazpacho is THE answer if you also have cucumbers growing left and right like I do. They are growing on my deck in a container and in the garden, I share with a friend! But if you don’t have a garden I am sure you can find them at your farmers market in many varieties at the moment. So, let’s take advantage of this great green bounty and let’s make cucumber gazpacho, shall we?

It’s still in the 90’s here in Colorado and cooking on the stove is not my preferred method at the moment. So, I chose cold “cooking” instead making this cucumber gazpacho, a cold cucumber soup.

Cucumber gazpacho is super tasty, refreshing and cooling with the coconut yoghurt. It is vegan, lactose- and gluten-free and great if you are on keto. And the best, its quick and easy to make! You just need a blender and a box-grater and – DONE! No stove, no heat! You even can prepare this soup in advance and keep it in the fridge overnight to serve it the next day. Just leave out the ice cubes and the grated cucumbers. Before serving just briefly blend the gazpacho with the ice cubes and stir in the ½ C shredded cucumber upon serving.

Muncher cucumbers

This year I planted munchers and Japanese cucumber. Muncher cucumbers are very tender and can be eaten with the peel at any stage and size. They are great for pickling when small or eaten fresh.  Normally they grow to about 6-8 inches long and about 3 inches thick. I love them because they have the perfect size for lunch boxes and for hiking. These Munchers are growing on my deck in a container.

Japanese cucumbers

In the same container I also planted Japanese cucumbers. I really like these for their taste and texture. They are very crunchy and great for salads, sliced on sandwiches, or pickled. These Japanese cucumbers are slim and long, curvy, almost snake-like and have a thin but spiky skin. Their flesh is dense with very small seeds. Even though their skin feels a bit spiky when harvesting, they easily brush off under water. So, just leave the skin on. It also adds a wonderful deep green color to the gazpacho.

Yielding four servings, I used one Japanese and two Muncher cucumbers for this cucumber gazpacho. This made 4 cups of cucumber chunks to blend, and about 1/2 cup shredded cucumber for the texture. Since cucumbers come in various sizes, you need more or less cucumbers. You can use any variety you find, English, Armenian, the small Persian, or any garden cucumber. Before using especially the bigger garden cucumbers, cut a small piece of either end, take a test bite to make sure they are not bitter. When using these bigger garden cucumbers, remove the seeds and just use the firm flesh.

I love the plain coconut yoghurt I make with full fat coconut milk and Probiotics in my Instant Pot. It is creamy, Greek yoghurt like, tastes super fresh, is rich, cooling, and adds a mild tartness to the gazpacho. But you can add any plain Greek yoghurt you like.

As far as herbs go, dill weed always perfectly pairs with cucumbers, right! For the gazpacho, use the fine parts of the dill, keep 1 Tbsp. for decoration. But do not throw away the thicker stems!

Another wonderful herb to use with cucumbers is borage, a MUST-have in every garden! Borage has fuzzy green leafs and beautiful, bright blue flowers. You can use the leaves and flowers for salads and just these blue flowers to decorate this gazpacho. Because my borage did not bloom yet as you can see on the picture,I used cucumber flowers instead.

Styrian pumpkin oil

The dark green oil I used on top of the cucumber gazpacho is a delicious Styrian pumpkin seed oil. I bought it at a farmer’s market on a visit in Austria last year. They also call it “green gold” there. You also can get it here. It has a deep, rich, nutty flavor and provides great health benefits. Pumpkin seed oil is one of the most nutritional oils available, and contains essential fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins, and sterols. It contains Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, vitamins A and C, zinc, and other trace minerals and vitamins. I love to add this oil to dressings, to top of pumpkin soup or stew. But to add a nutty flavor you also can use other pure nut oils like Walnut or Hazelnut oil.

Mindfully reducing waste, collecting veggie and herb scraps for your next veggie broth.

To create as little waste as possible, don’t throw away the bigger stems of the dill or any other herb. Sure, you can compost them. But here is an idea to make great use of all your veggie scraps, peels, greens, like the dill stems. They are actually adding great flavor to your next veggie broth! So from now on, collect all scraps, peels  and greens from onions, garlic, carrots, parsnip, celery, parsley etc. in a big freezer bag. Collect until your freezer bag is full. Then it’s time to make a delicious veggie broth. I briefly sauté all the scraps in my Instant Pot, add 4-6 cups of water and salt, close the lid and let the broth be made.

Ok now, here is the recipe for this delicious, refreshing, cold cucumber soup, the cucumber gazpacho.

Guten Appetit!

Print

cucumber gazpacho

Course soup

Cuisine Spanish

Keyword cold cucumber soup, cucumber gazpacho, cucumber soup, gazpacho

Prep Time 15 minutes

cooling time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

cucumber gazpacho

• 2 1/2 cucumbers with peel cut in pieces I had 1 Japanese and 1 1/2 Muncher from my garden but you can use English, Armenian, Persian, or garden cucumbers
• 1/3 C fresh dill weed alternative 2 Tbsp. dried dill weed
• 5 leafs borage
• 2 Tbsp. sweet miso paste more to taste
• 2 Tbsp. lime juice more to taste
• zest of 1/2 organic lime
• 4 Tbsp. coconut yoghurt plain
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt more to taste
• 2 pinch freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 Tbsp. MCT Oil or any neutral oil
• 5 small ice-cubes
• 1/2 C cucumber finely shredded

serving

• 2 Tbsp. roasted pumpkin seeds
• 1 Tbsp. freshly cut dill
• 1 Tbsp. Styrian pumpkin oil you can use roasted Walnut or Hazelnut oil
• 4 cucumber flowers
• 4 slices fresh cucumber with peel

Instructions

1. add all ingredients except the finely shredded cucumber in your blender and blend for about 1 minute until everything is creamy and well blended.

2. test and add anything you need to adjust to your liking with miso, salt, lime juice,black pepper...

3. fill it in a big jar or bottle, add the shredded cucumber and more dill weed, shake well and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes 

4. in the meanwhile roast the pumpkin seeds until they are popping a bit then let them cool

serving

1. divide the gazpacho to four bowls. Sprinkle with with fresh dill weed and the roasted pumpkin seeds. Add a cucumber flower if you have, they are edible. Or use a borage or nasturtium flower instead and add a slice of cucumber.

2. now sprinkle some of the pumpkin oil on top (or other tasty nut oil like roasted Walnut or Hazelnut oil) 

3. Guten Appetit!