This cold cucumber soup recipe is perfect for hot summer days. Creamy, cool, bright, and refreshing, it's a delicious, nourishing starter or side dish.
This cold cucumber soup is everything I want on a hot summer day. To make it, you don’t have to turn on the oven, the stove, or even the grill. Just toss the ingredients into a blender, puree, and chill! After a few hours in the fridge, this cucumber soup will be so creamy, cool, bright, and refreshing that you won’t be able to resist going back for seconds.
Cucumber Soup Recipe Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this cucumber soup:
- Cucumbers, of course! I love to use delicate, thin-skinned Persian cucumbers in this recipe. Don’t forget to save a few slices for garnish! They add a nice crunch to this cool, creamy soup.
- Greek yogurt – It gives the soup its delicious creamy texture and tangy flavor.
- Extra-virgin olive oil – For richness.
- Fresh herbs – I blend basil and dill into the soup and scatter more dill, fresh mint, or chives on top.
- Lemon juice – It makes the soup nice and bright.
- Garlic – It adds sharp depth of flavor.
- Honey – Don’t worry – the honey doesn’t make this recipe sweet. Instead, it offsets the tang from the lemon and the bite from the raw garlic, creating a flavorful, well-balanced soup.
- And salt and pepper – To make all the flavors pop!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Chilled Cucumber Soup
This cucumber soup recipe couldn’t be easier to make! Here’s how it goes:
First, blend! Add the cucumbers, herbs, yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, honey, salt, and pepper to a large blender, and blend until smooth.
Next, chill. When the soup is smooth, transfer it to the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Finally, enjoy! Serve the chilled soup in bowls with a garnish of fresh herbs, thinly sliced cucumbers, and a generous drizzle of olive oil.
Cold Cucumber Soup Serving Suggestions
This cold cucumber soup is a wonderful starter or side dish. On summer nights, I often serve it as part of a light dinner with a substantial salad like my Mediterranean Chickpea Salad, Panzanella Salad, or Cherry Tomato Couscous Salad. For a heartier meal, serve it as an appetizer with these Stuffed Zucchini Boats, Grilled Vegetable Skewers with Tzatziki, or my Roasted Vegetable Pasta.
This cucumber soup is also a lovely starter for a spring or summer brunch. I love pairing it with a few salads, like my Carrot Salad or Simple Green Salad, and a savory main course like a Frittata or Breakfast Casserole.
Finally, this cold cucumber soup is a perfect lunch on a hot summer day. Enjoy it with a hunk of good crusty bread or focaccia, a slice of avocado toast, or a simple sandwich. A Caprese Sandwich, a Chickpea Salad Sandwich, or an Egg Salad Sandwich would be a great choice.
More Favorite Cucumber Recipes
If you loved this recipe, try one of these next:
- Easy Gazpacho
- Cucumber Gazpacho
- Greek Salad
- Cucumber Salad
- Dill Pickles
- Orzo Salad
- Cucumber Tomato Salad
- Tzatziki Sauce
Cold Cucumber Soup
Ingredients
- 6 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced, reserve a few slices for garnish
- 1½ cups plain whole milk Greek yogurt
- ¾ cup fresh basil leaves
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh dill, plus more for garnish
- 1 garlic clove
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon honey
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Fresh mint or chives, for garnish
Instructions
- In a blender, combine the cucumbers, yogurt, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, dill, garlic, salt, honey, and several grinds of pepper and blend until smooth. Chill for at least 4 hours.
- Ladle into bowls and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with the reserved cucumber slices, freshly ground black pepper, and fresh dill, mint, and/or chives. Serve cold.
This is fantastic! I’m currently overwhelmed with cucumbers from my garden, and I’ve made this twice. The entire family loves it! No changes needed, but I imagine it’s versatile if you want to try different herbs or something. I love it just as written, though!
I’m so glad it’s been such a hit!
I haven’t made the soup yet. Persian cucumbers are small. It is hard to imagine 6 Persian cucumbers yielding 8 servings. What is the weight of the cucumbers you are referencing.
I made a similar soup years ago, especially during the summer. Then I somewhat forgot about it. Thank you for the reminder. I’ll try to prepare it in the coming days, especially since the temperature is very high. And in such weather, one usually doesn’t feel like eating heavy meat dishes.
I made this yesterday. It was delicious and so very refreshing! Loved the garlic in it.
What is the actual amount of cucumber in cups? Having a number of cucumbers is not helpful.
What is the serving size?
Nutritional info?
Loved this recipe. Super easy. Made it dairy-free with coconut milk and it turned out excellent. I would say the raw garlic is pretty strong- I like that, but would caution people sensitive to garlic to leave out.
This was delicious! Another commenter said it tastes similar to tzatziki and I think that’s a good comparison.
I added a heel of bread because I like it thicker and a splash of chive vinegar and would recommend both of those adjustments if they sound like things you like, but neither one is necessary.
Do you peel and seed the cucumbers? Most recipes do.
Hi Susan, it’s not necessary with Persian cucumbers because the seeds are minimal and the thin skin is mild – if you had other types of cucumbers, you could seed and peel.
For the express version, I did what I learned in Madrid 40 years ago with Gazpacho: add 1/2 cup of ice cubes and blend them with the soup. No need to refrigerate and the soup is a little lighter, which is lovely when it is sultry weather.
Great tip! Thanks for sharing it.
Made this. Forgot to garnish with olive oil but it was delicious. I took a picture but can’t seem to post it. My sometimes picking teen scraped the bottom of her soup bowl. I mixed in my food processor and got about 4 cups which made 3 filling servings about 1.3cups each. The machine couldn’t handle more volume so I would consider making two batches to serve up to 6.
Hi Helen, I’m so glad the soup was a hit!
Thank you. Is there a heathier vegan version?
coconut milk or cream
About how many cups of cucumber are required? I happen to have a bunch of sliced cucumber I want to use up, but need to know if I’ll have to adjust the other ingredients.
Hi Shayne! Unfortunately, we don’t have a cup measurement for the cucumbers here, but I think roughly 3 cups sliced cucumber would do the trick. I’d start there and add more to taste, keeping in mind that the soup will get thinner as you blend in more cucumber.
This is just the recipe I was looking for! I reduced the yogurt just a bit and because dill is not my favorite herb, I used mint instead. The mint makes this dish even brighter. Fresh cucumbers from the Farmers Market or garden makes all the difference. I chilled in the refrigerator for 20 hours., served with a tomato basil tart and a Sauvignon Blanc. It took me back to a favorite restaurant in Montpellier, France. Loved it.
I’m so glad you loved it!
Pretty tasty. Like drinking blended tzatziki, which is maybe a little weird, but I like tzatziki. I couldn’t really taste all that basil. It mostly tasted like garlic and dill. Now, on day 2, it’s more raw garlicy, like tzatziki. I love the cold carrot Thai-inspired soup here, so while this is fine, I think I’ll do more of that next time, or try another cold soup on this site.
Can coconut milk be substituted for the yogurt for a dairy free meal?
Hi Alexa, I think that would be fine.
Sounds perfect for summer. So nice and refreshing.
I think I see basil leaves in that blender, but they’re not listed in the recipe. Are those basil leaves?
Hi Alan, the recipe calls for 3/4 cup fresh basil.
Oh jeez, that’s what I get for reading recipes late at night. Thanks for your response!
Do u cook the cucumbers first???? Before puting them in the blender??
Hi Donna, the cucumbers are raw in this recipe.
I intend to make this as a first course in a potluck dinner. Would it make a difference if I used plain, no-fat yogurt instead of whole milk?
Hi Paula, I think it would be fine.