One of my favorite soups is a jar of my home canned tomatoes (pureed) and as much cream topped with a shower of basil and served icy cold!

I like avocado soup, which is made with avocados, lime juice, chicken stock, and yogurt. I supposed you could garnish with cilantro, but I usually do not bother. You can also use sour cream instead of yogurt, but I prefer yogurt. I use two cups of chicken broth with four avocados plus 1/2 cup of yogurt, 1/4 cup lime juice, and salt to taste. Add salt only if your chicken broth is not salty. Some people use lemon juice, but I prefer lime - usually one lime per cup of broth.

I make this in the blender.

Are we allowed to add Vodka and a stick of celery?

Gazpacho is my usual. Lars’ soup sounds great. I like many soups cold, as long as they aren’t fatty in a way that turns greasy.

I’m cooked out, it is too hot and the house is upside down for various reasons. I can’t enjoy cooking in disorder. Been doing a lot of takeout, and quick throw-it-together jumbles. But I can probably rouse myself to blend up a soup!

I love cold hot and sour soup (restaurant) if it's soupy -- that is, it doesn't have too much starch in it so it's gritty or solid.

Kate, you can add anything you want, but would it be better in a highball glass than a soup bowl? So the celery can stand tall? OTOH, come to think of it, bloody mary mix isn't that far off from cooked gazpacho! Reduce it, add minced scallion and maybe some green pepper, and serve chilled in a chilled bowl. :) Maybe keep the vodka and celery on the side. :)

Hmmm.... If you stand a stalk of celery in some vodka will it suck it up the way it does water? Think of the possibilities...

My mother keeps trying to feed me borscht. I've hated it since childhood to the point where I thought I hated beets in general and only learned to like them when Love Beets came out with the seasoned ones.

Do any of you make tschav? Sorrel is still very seasonal, but I like it much better than borscht.

Oh for a kick, I often use powdered wasabi (not necessarily real wasabi, I realize a lot of it is not). Doesn’t discolor or alter flavors, but gives a controllable and evenly distributed “kick”.

DD makes great borscht. She learned it from some friends in Poland. I don’t try to make it myself as She Will Find Fault. Beets also reduce blood pressure.

Then there's vichyssoise but you have to cook it first lol

Chilled Raspberry Soup (a variation from Carnival Cruises--recipe found on all recipes) You can also use strawberries instead of raspberries.

2 cups frozen raspberries (this went up to the 2 C mark on my blender)

2 cups milk or low fat milk, but not skim milk

1 cup heavy cream or Half & Half

1/2 cup sour cream

2 T sugar or 1 T superfine sugar, or to taste

Puree raspberries, then put this through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.

Put the puree back into the blender, and add the milk, cream and sour cream & blend until smooth.

Stir in sugar to taste.

Chill 8 hours or overnight in refrigerator before serving.

Top with a bit of extra sour cream or yogurt. Delicious, refreshing and rich!

Sooz, you left out a step! Churn 20 minutes in the ice cream maker. LOL!

John, I’m not dissing your daughter's borscht. The only thing wrong with my mother’s borscht (Lithuanian provenance)—she was a very good cook—is that I hate borscht. I’ve tasted Polish borscht. No significant difference. Turns out I like beets. Just hate borscht. Tell your daughter to find some sorrel and make some tschav. Much superior. ;)

I haven't made gazpacho in years, but that and cold beet borscht with sour cream are 2 classic faves of mine

This makes me think of a recipe I saw not long ago for a peach gazpacho. All I remember is it included cukes and cilantro. Will have to try and find it again.

Chloebud, that was sufficient. I think peaches and cucumbers sounds interesting! No, but I might try something like that. I have some peaches that need using.

I'm thinking it likely came from The Peach Truck Cookbook.

The other day I made Ina's Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup (per DH's request). The last of it was lunch today. This thread made me decide to just have it chilled. Really nice with the fresh basil on top.

Cold peach soup with mint and sparkling wine.

Peach puree with chiffonade of mint and a Brut Sparkling wine to thin it to desired thickness

lisaam, that sounds right up my alley. :-)

I found the peach gazpacho recipe. Very simple, for sure.

Peachy Green Gazpacho

This recipe, which comes from The Peach Truck Cookbook, only has six simple ingredients, and the flavor is unbelievable. Whip up a batch of this Peachy Green Gazpacho for a light meal on a warm summer day.

6 peaches, peeled, pitted and diced
1 large English cucumber, peeled and diced
3 Tblsp champagne vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2 Tblsp chopped cilantro leaves, plus whole leaves for garnish

Reserve 1/4 cup each of diced fresh peach and cucumber for garnish. Place remaining peaches and cucumber in blender and vinegar, olive oil, salt, and 1 cup water. Blend on high until smooth.

Once smooth, stir in the cilantro and pour into serving dishes.

Garnish with a little of the reserved diced peach and cucumber and top each with a cilantro leaf before serving. This can be served immediately or chill up to 24 hours before serving.

I have had an excess of fresh garden produce of the usual suspects for this time of year.

I have taken to making big containers of any and all of them that are chopped, a bit of salt and a splash of lemon juice and let it sit in the fridge where it will keep for days and be ready to eat or ready to parley into something else.

If you use enough tomatoes, the vegetables will release their juices into a nice soup, gazpacho. If you use less you will have more of a hybrid soup/salad.

What I have found is that this makes a nice base to use to create other things with.

You can add white beans to the soup, or any type of meat or seafood. Although I take this opportunity to not eat meat and just enjoy the bounty of the season and avoid the meat.

You can have it with bulgur, barley, pasta or serve it with toasted cheese on bread.

Cook your pasta and while it is still warm, turn some vegetable medley into it and let it sit for a few hours. The pasta will take up the juices. Chop in some fresh herbs and serve with a nice grated cheese. We have this as a cold meal. Embellish however you find suits you.

You can add what ever array of spices you want.

Just make the base of vegetables and you can go lots of places from there.

Last evening we had some sandwiches and instead of doing that thing with putting vegetable on the sandwich, I just served us each a small bowl of the vegetables with the sandwich.

At this time of year we eat copious amounts of fresh vegetables because we won't have them in the winter. It doesn't matter that we have them every day and every meal. It is the season and it will not last long.