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Chilled soups deliver when temperatures soar. We found these six options, summer’s bounty in a bowl, with fresh seasonal ingredients. Get ready to slurp.
At Turn, chef David Kirkland combines the mild earthiness of golden beets with the bright flavor and aromatics of fennel to make the intense yellow-orange purée for his Chilled Beet and Fennel soup (pictured above). He floats a tracery of balsamic sour cream on top and then accents all with microgreens for a soup as beautiful as it is tasty. “It’s a customer favorite,” he says. Enjoy it for breakfast or lunch; hours are 8 a.m.–3 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Sunday.
“We harvest heirloom cucumbers from our garden at Bowood Farms to make this no-cook Cucumber and Feta soup for Cafe Osage,” says chef Scott Davis. He peels and seeds the cucumbers, which he then blends with feta, white onions, basil, olive oil, and almonds. “We finish it with a spike of verjus or champagne vinegar and then garnish with finely diced red onion, torn basil leaves, and crumbled feta.” Offered as a special, the soup will be available for a few weeks because the cucumbers are doing quite well. Café Osage serves breakfast and lunch seven days a week.
The flavors, textures, and colors of cantaloupe, watermelon, smoked ham, and red shisho create an intriguing complexity in the Chilled Melon Soup (pictured above) at Farmhaus. “We thicken the basic soup with natural pectin from the core—the stringy part—of the cantaloupes,” says chef Jake Sciales. “We put it in a chinois [strainer] and press out the juice.” The cooks compress melon balls and cook thin slices of smoked ham crispy for textural changes. Torn leaves of red shiso, a Japanese herb whose complex flavor profile starts with cinnamon and hints of spearmint and basil. The restaurant opens at 5:30 p.m. for dinner Tuesday through Saturday.
Chefs at The Tavern Kitchen and Bar in the Central West End concocted a fruity gazpacho (pictured above), which starts with a base of sweet strawberries and cucumbers. The soup gets its punch from savory onions, garlic, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. A flurry of edible flowers and microgreens float on the surface. “This soup has been popular with our guests,” says general manager Brad Nichols. “We’ll have it on the menu throughout the summer, only at our Central West End location.” The soup is both vegetarian and gluten-free. The Tavern opens for dinner at 5 p.m. Monday–Saturday.
For a slightly different take on a classic gazpacho, visit Kitchen Kulture at Tower Grove Farmers' Market to pick up a quart of the signature gazpacho (pictured above), made with sweet, lower-acid yellow tomatoes. “It’s fresh, herbaceous, and creamy—although there’s no cream in our recipe,” says co-owner Chris Meyer, who sells the soup at the Kitchen Kulture stand in Tower Grove Park on Saturdays during tomato season. In addition to lower-acid yellow tomatoes, the soup includes cucumber, onion, fennel, garlic, oil, vinegar, turmeric, salt, and a pinch of cayenne. This bright-yellow gazpacho is available in 16-ounce containers.
The Chilled Sweet Corn and Vegetable Mole soup on the lunch menu at Vicia (pictured above) relies on simple ingredients and flawless technique to deliver maximum taste. “Even though it's smooth and creamy, there’s no cream in our soup,” says co-owner Tara Gallina. “We make a sweet onion purée to combine with fresh corn, salt, and lemon juice. Then we add a schmear of vegetable molé.” The molé begins with vegetable tops and parings cooked into a stock, which is reduced and charred into a smoky vegetable paste swirled into the pale yellow soup.
