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Prep time
40 minutes
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Serves
4
Author Notes
This summer soup is easy to play with and a great way to cool off on hot nights. If you like it more herbaceous and less sweet, add more cucumber and less melon, and maybe blend in some basil or parsley leaves. If you like the puree to be creamier, add more of the yogurt to the blender and use less as a garnish. Keep it cold in your refrigerator and serve it up in chilled glasses. We call this dish Cretan Cucumber Soup on our menu due to a garnish of crushed dakos or paximadia, which are traditional barley rusks from Crete. These dense croutons are found in bakeries all over the island and are often topped with chopped fresh tomatoes and feta, but we love the texture and flavor they add to this sweet, creamy soup. Look for them at specialty grocers and online. But don’t worry if you can’t find them: pita chips also work very well.
Text © From Zaytinya by José Andrés. Copyright © 2024 by José Andrés Media. Excerpted by permission of Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
—Food52
Ingredients
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1
English cucumber
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1
lime
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1
honeydew melon (about 5 pounds)
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1 bunch
fresh mint
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1/2 teaspoon
dried mint
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1 cup
plus 2 tablespoons Greek Yogurt, divided
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1/2 cup
pita chips or dakos, broken into 1/2-inch pieces
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1 pinch
Aleppo pepper
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Flaky sea salt
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Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Directions
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Peel the cucumber, halve lengthwise, and remove any seeds. Finely dice one half of the cucumber and set the other half aside. You want about 1 cup of diced cucumber. Put the diced cucumber in a bowl and zest the lime over the top with a Microplane.
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Remove the rind from the melon by first cutting off the top and bottom, exposing the flesh. Stand the melon cut side down on a cutting board and remove the rind with a sharp knife, slicing from top to bottom all around the melon to remove it in strips; make sure to trim away all the rind. Halve the melon, scoop out the seeds, and discard. Finely dice 1 cup of the melon and add to the diced cucumber. Set the remaining melon aside.
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Divide the mint leaves in half. Thinly slice half the leaves and leave the other half whole. Add the sliced mint leaves to the bowl of diced melon and cucumber. Stir to combine, then cover and refrigerate.
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Chop the remaining melon and cucumber and put into a blender. Add the mint leaves, dried mint, and 2 tablespoons of the Greek yogurt. Juice the zested lime into the blender, then puree until totally smooth, about 3 minutes. Strain the puree through a fine-mesh sieve into a pitcher or container and refrigerate until cold, about 20 minutes.
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When ready to serve, spoon 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt into four serving bowls, then divide the chilled diced cucumber and melon among the bowls. Remove the chilled soup from the refrigerator. Stir the soup briskly if any separation occurred, then pour the chilled soup into each bowl and top with pita chips or dakos. Sprinkle with Aleppo pepper and flaky sea salt, then drizzle with olive oil.
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