A no-cook, refreshing cold watermelon soup, that is healthy and has just enough spice for a hot summer’s day meal. While gazpacho is a Spanish soup, the flavours in this recipe are Mexican.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups seedless watermelon, diced (about 500-600g) about a third of small watermelon
- ½ a red bell pepper, diced
- ½ cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 tomato, roughly chopped
- 1 small onion, roughly chopped
- 1 jalapeño, roughly chopped
- 4 tablespoons cilantro leaves
- 2 tablespoons celery, roughly chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped fine
- ¼th teaspoon cumin, ground
- 1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
- ½ teaspoon ancho chili, ground Click here to buy
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- freshly ground pepper, about ¼th teaspoon
- 4 tablespoons grated paneer or crumbled feta cheese for garnish (optional) Click here to buy Feta Cheese
- one lime, cut into wedges (optional)
Instructions:
- In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the cheese. Mix well and stir to combine.
- Working in batches, transfer the ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth. Adjust salt and seasonings and chill for ½ hour to an hour.
- Garnish with grated paneer or crumbles feta (if using), accompanied by a wedge of lime, and serve the same day.
Critical Ingredients:
While the watermelon is obviously critical, you can leave out the garlic and celery and there isn’t a significant change in flavour. The acidity from the tomato is required, and cucumbers give the soup body, but the red bell pepper could be green or yellow-red just helps keep colour! I love the taste of cumin and pomegranate molasses together, but if you don’t have the latter, don’t sweat it! Just use a nice balsamic vinegar instead, or any vinegar. Jalapeños give it a more Mexican flavour, but really any chili will do. Or you can skip the jalapeño and ancho chilies and just use about ½ a teaspoon of hot red chili ground. Since the soup has raw ingredients – don’t keep it too long before serving it. Cilantro can be substituted with parsley, and even dill tastes good!
