Chilled Cucumber-Spinach Soup
Published June 11, 2025
- Total Time
- 6 hours
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes, plus cooling and chilling time
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ⅓cup unsalted butter or avocado oil
- 2medium leeks, trimmed, white and light green parts chopped
- Salt and pepper
- ½ teaspoon pimentón or smoked paprika
- 1pound baby spinach
- 2large seedless English cucumbers, peeled and chopped (about 4 cups)
- 6ounces silken tofu, cut into rough ½-inch cubes
- 3tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 2tablespoons soy sauce
- Shiso or Thai basil leaves, for garnish
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
223 calories; 19 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 11 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 3 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 532 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Melt butter in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Add leeks, season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the pimentón. Cook, stirring until leeks are softened, about 10 minutes, lowering heat as necessary to prevent browning.
- Step 2
Add spinach, season with salt and pepper and turn heat to high. Add 2 cups water and quickly wilt spinach, stirring. Remove from heat and spread out on a sheet pan or platter to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
- Step 3
In a food processor or blender, blend spinach mixture and cucumber in batches until very smooth, and pass through a fine-meshed strainer.
- Step 4
Taste and adjust seasoning. If necessary, thin soup with ice water until it’s the consistency of a thin milkshake. Chill up to 24 hours for the freshest taste and color.
- Step 5
To serve, put tofu in a low bowl, add sesame oil and soy sauce, and toss gently.
- Step 6
Ladle soup into chilled soup bowls. Top each bowl with tofu. Drizzle with more sesame oil and soy sauce. Garnish with torn or slivered shiso or basil leaves.
Private Notes
Comments
Step 2 is unclear: does the two cups of water that had been added to the spinach mixture also go in the sheet pan/platter to cool or is the spinach mixture alone removed from that water?? If the water also cools in the sheet pan, how can the slushy mixture be neatly transferred to the food processor/blender??
Presumably we strain the cooked stuff before spreading it out on a sheet pan? :)
Haven't made it yet but if I do I plan to skip the sheet pan business and just let it cool in the pot before blending. Washing sheet pans is a pain but waiting for something to cool is not. I'll usually use a wide deep skillet for something like this anyway, allowing for faster cooling.
I’m on Team Bland. It just seems to be missing something—I think it needs some acid, and I gave it a splash of seasoned rice vinegar, but it kind of disappeared into the vague savoriness of it all. Not bad, just meh.
Made this last night. It was strange. Not bad. Just weird. I won't be making it again. At first I didn't put though a strainer because I figured the Vitamix would do the job. But for the second bowl, I did strain and it was better.
Made it for lunch today and served in verines as a first course. I put it in the fridge to chill already served in verines and it went really fast. I served it 45 minutes later and it was chilled perfectly. For garnishes I just put Thai basil from my garden and a drizzle of roasted sesame oil. I skipped the soy sauce and the tofu since it was a first course and didn’t need the protein. If I had it as a main course however I would add the tofu but I think I’d still skip the soy sauce. The spinach flavor is so good that I don’t want to lose it.
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