I know there are more than a few vegetarians amongst my readers and commenters. Unfortunately, despite my love for fruits and vegetables, my recipes for purely vegetarian dishes are few and far between. But here is a vegetarian soup that is so easy to make that The Kid did most of the work by herself and it tasted utterly brilliant. You may be wary of cold soups, I certainly was, but on a blisteringly hot day at the beach, this is a refreshing way to start a light and completely “heat-less” and “meat-less” meal.
This recipe comes from the Mustards Grill Cookbook. This well regarded restaurant in Napa Valley, California has been around for years and has consistently delivered superb food to a demanding clientele. For the soup, you will need: 2 pounds of seedless green grapes, 1 small cucumber (the thin Japanese kind without seeds, preferably) peeled and chopped, 1/4 cup of toasted almonds, 2 green onions, coarsely chopped, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 3 oz cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup buttermilk (or just milk), salt and white pepper to taste, several sprigs of dill and a pinch of ground cayenne pepper.
Stick everything in a blender and blitz until smooth-ish but it still retains some texture. Chill in the fridge for about 2 hours. Serve in cold bowls (leave these in fridge for an hour or two before serving) and garnish with more chopped cucumber. I know, I know, it sounds bizarre, but oddly it tasted really good. I actually forgot to bring the recipe with me to the beach where we tried this out, so my version was a little less exact and I just tasted as we blended and it turned out just as good. Feel free to experiment a bit with the ingredients… but the grapes, nuts and dairy products are essential.
With this cold starter I served a simple green salad and had some fruit for dessert. Yes, there you have it. Marketman does a vegetarian meal. Oh, and I even garnished one of the soup bowls with some pomegranate seeds, but I wouldn’t recommend that you do that… it wasn’t such a good idea after all. This recipe serves 6 with a nice portion each. If you make several batches of these and chill them in a pitcher, you can easily stir them up and serve them in small glasses if you are having a crowd over for an outdoor barbecue or some other casual occasion. Total prep time, about 10 minutes!
5 Responses
Hi MM!
Am back in Japan now after spending almost 2 months in the US…mainland, Maui and Honolulu. It felt like a sauna after stepping off the plane here in Japan….so blistering hot!
Anyway, I do serve vergetarian meals 3 or 4 times a week and this one looks good.
as always, I enjoy your blog and wish I could avail myself again to the freshness of the ingredients you use as my mom used to buy—–especially fresh seafood.
Hello MM! I see that my “favorite” colors are all being used in your photos! :-) It’s funny that my friend was telling me that no too long ago she had lunch at Mustard’s Grill and here you have made a recipe from its book. Napa is only about 45 minutes away from me. Anyhoo, this is one of the many recipes I will try especially when the weather warrants it. I think I’ll have to start my own binder called “MM’s Recipes”. :-) Take care!
Happy Birthday MarketMan!
May you have a lot more birthdays and food blogs to come.
All the best,
Beng
This is a favorite of mine, and I think you can do away without the cream cheese and all the other dairy stuff if you have a good yogurt, such as the one from Rizal farm here in Manila (even though the idea of a yogurt soup might make most Filipinos squirm).
I find that this recipe always need a lot of “fine tuning”, because for some reason slight differences in the quality of the onions, the grapes etc can make a big difference. Anyway, this is a dish that will impress even the most blasé eaters.
By the way, the recipe comes from Cordoba in Spain, where it is known as “Gazpacho Blanco”…
Hooray for cold soups and hooray for vegetarian dishes!