Cold Cucumber Soup

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.

Cucumber soup

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

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.

Cucumbers, basil, and dill in a blender

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.

Cold cucumber soup in a blender

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.

Bowl of chilled cucumber soup with spoon

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 SaladPanzanella 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.

Cucumber soup recipe

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Cold Cucumber Soup

rate this recipe:
4.92 from 47 votes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Chilling Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
Serves 8
This chilled cucumber soup recipe is a delicious summer starter or side dish! Fresh herbs, Greek yogurt, and lemon juice make it bright, creamy, and refreshing. Gluten-free.

Ingredients

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.

Notes

Note: I like to serve this with crusty bread or this focaccia recipe.

57 comments

4.92 from 47 votes (30 ratings without comment)

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Rate this recipe (after making it)




  1. Saske
    06.29.2024

    4 stars
    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.

  2. Helen from Sleeplists.com
    06.26.2024

    5 stars
    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.

    • Phoebe Moore (L&L Recipe Developer)
      06.28.2024

      Hi Helen, I’m so glad the soup was a hit!

  3. Kathryn Louise
    06.24.2024

    Thank you. Is there a heathier vegan version?

  4. Shayne
    06.13.2024

    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.

    • Phoebe Moore (L&L Recipe Developer)
      06.14.2024

      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.

  5. Paula
    06.08.2024

    5 stars
    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.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      06.13.2024

      I’m so glad you loved it!

  6. Elizabeth
    05.28.2024

    3 stars
    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.

  7. Alexa
    04.16.2024

    Can coconut milk be substituted for the yogurt for a dairy free meal?

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      04.20.2024

      Hi Alexa, I think that would be fine.

  8. Mik
    03.29.2024

    Sounds perfect for summer. So nice and refreshing.

  9. Alan
    03.02.2024

    I think I see basil leaves in that blender, but they’re not listed in the recipe. Are those basil leaves?

    • Phoebe Moore (L&L Recipe Developer)
      03.08.2024

      Hi Alan, the recipe calls for 3/4 cup fresh basil.

      • Alan
        03.09.2024

        Oh jeez, that’s what I get for reading recipes late at night. Thanks for your response!

  10. Donna
    10.09.2023

    Do u cook the cucumbers first???? Before puting them in the blender??

    • Phoebe Moore (L&L Recipe Developer)
      10.13.2023

      Hi Donna, the cucumbers are raw in this recipe.

  11. Paula
    09.04.2023

    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?

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      09.05.2023

      Hi Paula, I think it would be fine.

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.