Vegan Cucumber Soup (Raw + GF)

Cucumber soup? It may sound strange if you’ve never had it before. But raw soups are a great way to cool off in the summer. Not to mention that silky smooth cool soup recipes are elegant when served as a starter at a summer time dinner party. For another cold soup recipe check out this delish pea soup with thyme . Or this cucumber gazpacho with yogurt… I would use greek sheep or goat yogurt for easier digestion.

The ingredients for this summer soup recipe are common and easy to find. This is a treat since many raw vegan recipes include obscure ingredients. I did use my favorite gluten free soy sauce – Nama Shoyu. I’ve provided a link to this sauce in the recipe card. But you can swap it out for any other type of soy sauce or Tamari.

1. English Cucumbers
2. Fresh Garlic
3. Lemon Juice
4. Scallions
5. Water
6. Nama Shoyu Gluten Free Soy Sauce
7. Sea Salt

Another thing I love about this vegan cucumber soup recipe is that you can swap out a lot of the ingredients, without compromising the flavor.

English Cucumbers

1. No Wax: I prefer English cucumbers to the regular ones because they don’t have wax on their skin and because they have smaller seeds. If you buy regular cucumbers for this recipe just make sure you peel the skin. It’s important to peel the skin off of conventional cucumbers so that you don’t ingest the wax. The wax applied to cucumbers cannot be washed off. It’s also not good for your health!
2. Better Flavor: Another thing to keep in mind is that the seeds of regular cucumbers are big and sour. So to ensure that your soup is delicate in flavor simply scoop out the seeds with a spoon.

Scallions

If you don’t have scallions on hand don’t worry. Simply swap them out for sweet white onion.

Nama Shoyu Soy Sauce

I love Nama Shoyu Soy Sauce because it’s gluten free and clean. Most soy sauces in America do not compare with their Japanese cousins. The traditional Japanese process by which soy sauce is made is laborious and time consuming. Therefore the sauce is expensive. To cut down on costs American (and some Japanese) companies have changed the recipes and included artificial ingredients. Try to buy an organic gluten free soy sauce. But what ever you have on hand will do. You can also use Tamari instead.

Lemon Juice

Lime Juice works just fine as well. You can also use 1 table spoon of vinegar instead. Just add another 1/4 cup of water to the soup to thin it out.

Cucumber soup is a quintessential summer recipe. So when thinking about what to serve with it I think of summer salads and light main dishes like Zucchini Carpaccio or this Rainbow Salad with Raw Vegan Green Goddess Dressing. It would also taste wonderful topped with sun dried tomato tapenade. This soup also goes well with Eggplant Pate.

• Zucchini Carpaccio
• Sun dried Tomato tapenade
• Pan Sautéed Brussels Sprouts
• Eggplant Pate

1. For a bright green add the lemon to the soup just before serving. While salt makes green vegetables greener acid dulls their color.
2. This Soup lasts for 3 days in the fridge but it’s color will start to turn from a bright green to yellow.
3. For the best results use a high speed blender like the vitamix. My favorite blender!