When Summer Rolls around and the heat is overwhelming, aside from fresh water, nothing sounds better than a cold and refreshing meal. This cooling soup always comes to mind when summer hits and I tend to make it at least a few times a year during the hot months.
This is a soup I ate a lot growing up and the ingredients just go so well together; yogurt, fresh dill, cucumbers, and some garlic are the main ingredients. It’s perfect as a light lunch and it tastes so fresh, did I mention it is extremely cooling…I don’t think I can say it enough! This Recipe traditionally comes from Bulgaria and it is called Tarator. You may see other variations of this one being a thicker version usually made as a side dish called Snejanka, I believe there are some Greek versions of it too.
Yogurt in itself is very beneficial since it is loaded with probiotics but you want to make sure you are buying good quality yogurt. I always buy organic plain yogurt and you want to make sure it has Lactobacillus Delbrueckii Bulgaricus. This is a probiotic found in real yogurt and ironically enough it was first identified by Bulgarian Doctor Stamen Grigorov in 1905. (I always get over excited when it comes to Bulgarian related topics 🙂 Anyway the bacteria feeds on lactose found in milk to produce lactic acid which preserves the milk.
(Walnuts Not Pictured) I almost forgot them in the recipe all together 🙁
Cucumbers Chopped Into Small Cubes
Fresh Chopped Dill
(Again Walnuts Not Pictured, Yet)
Yogurt
I finally Remembered them…. (Also notice the thickness of the soup in the walnut photo to the photo below)
This is After 1 cup of water was added
Cucumber Yogurt Soup
Also, another random tip….DON’T eat this soup before you go do hot pilates haha the soup was excellent but I felt like vomiting the entire pilates class. Then I came home and ate it again after wards hahaha! (Much more refreshing that time)
- -32 oz Organic Yogurt
- -2 Medium Sized Cucumbers peeled and chopped into small cubes
- -1/2 cup fresh chopped Dill (you can add more if desired)
- -4 Cloves Garlic finely chopped
- -1/2 cup Raw Walnuts chopped
- -1-2 teaspoons pepper (based on your preference)
- -1 teaspoon salt
- -1 cup of water (if you want it more runny like a soup you can add a bit more water)
- In a large bowl add in all of the ingredients except the yogurt and mix together
- Pour in the yogurt and mix again (I usually do a taste test to see if I need to add more of anything)
- Pour in the water (1/4 cup at a time) and stir until incorporated. Repeat until you reach desired consistency
- www.sproutinghealthyhabits.com