Chilled summer soups

[WendyS]

I usually make soup with chicken stock and want to experiment making some light chilled vegetable soups such as watercress when summer comes . How do I keep them chilled but not solid as my stock always turns to jelly when stored in the fridge?

[nickmo]

WendyS - the stock included in the soup is unlikely to set as a seperation issue. The majority of chilled soups can be made the day before and cooled safely in a fridge overnight before serving. Have a look at : http://www.astray.com/recipes/?search=chilled+soup 96 ideas there and there are loads of other sources for suggestions.

The main thing with a chilled soup I suggest is to only ever use the freshest ingredients - watercress in season, just picked beets, new peas and so on, so that you have a soup that is literally a blend of pureed veg thickened with a cream etc before serving.

Some chilled soups can have seafood for example, but think of them as a really healthy, tasty way to get your essentials from veg.

[AB Editor]

At a guess from your notes, I would say you are using meat/chicken stock which would jellify. Try making a vegetable stock to use as a base. There are plenty of recipes for these, you can adapt them to emphasise flavours such as celery, fennel etc. Submitted By: waimarie Date Submitted: Wed 22/03/06 22:30

[mindimplode]

Gazpaccio Soup;

Sweat off (dont brown) red peppers, white onions, fresh basil and (a little) garlic in a pan. Add tomato polpa (or better still tomato juice, but it is more expensive) and diced cucumber. Blitz to a smooth consistency (and ideally pass it through a seive). Chill in fridge and serve cold. You can make it look fancy by garnishing with a simple plain salsa of diced peppers, tomato and red onion.