cooling cucumber and yoghurt soup
Here are a few food rules I subscribe to: eat stuff in season, when it’s cheap, and in contrast to what’s going on with the weather. The first two edicts are self-explanatory. The third might need some detail.
I eat in a “roughly Ayurvedic” way. I’ve written about how this works here. It’s mostly about eating to what your body needs, taking into consideration your “type” or “dosha”. I’m a vatta with a fair bit of pitta in me too. In summer, the pitta can play up. We get hot. Pitta types get hot and need to be cooled. Mine has been sweating it out a bit lately. And once one dosha is out, the rest get wobbly, too.
And, so, today, as we (here in Australia) sweat out the last of the summer heat, a simple cooling and hydrating recipe for the pitta in us all.
Cucumbers are the ultimate cooling food and are a very good source of vitamin C and caffeic acid, compounds that help the body prevent water retention, a problem that I am battling right now.
A few notes:
* Avoid peeling your cuces: the skin is full of fibre and is a good source of potassium and magnesium – all of which help with the hydrating process. Also, can I just say…what a horrific waste?? Further, skin maketh a chunkier soup.
* I’ve provided a few options with the herbs etc, so you can choose to use up what you have in the fridge.
* I use chicken stock that I store in ice cube trays in the freezer. This adds extra coolness. Or use a little lemon juice instead (for a sharper soup).
* I always add oil on top. Remember: fat helps you absorb important vitamins found in vegetables.
* The soup will keep for 2 days in the fridge.
Cooling cucumber and yoghurt soup
serves 2
- 2 medium cucumbers, chopped
- 1 ¼ cup plain Greek-style full-fat yogurt
- ¼ cup chicken stock or 2 tbls lemon juice
- a handful of mint leaves or dill or coriander leaves (or a combo of each)
- 1 tbsp. chives, chopped, or 1 garlic clove, crushed
- pinch of salt
- extra virgin olive oil or macadamia oil
Blend all of the ingredients except the oil until smooth. Refrigerate for 20 minutes (at least) and serve with a drizzle of oil.
Cool? As a cucumber?
Your parents are rad,...
Sarah could you please do an Easter recipe special?
I’m gluten, sugar and dairy free but would love a Hot Cross Bun alternative??
Up for the challenge?
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March 13th, 2013 at 9:42 am
Hi Courtney,
The Healthy Chef has a paleo hot cross bun recipe, scroll down past the spelt/oats version: http://www.thehealthychef.com/2012/03/healthy-hot-cross-buns/
You have to do some subs (rice malt for honey, for eg) and take out the dried fruit, and instead of chocolate you can use raw cacao nibs but I think it would still work!
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March 13th, 2013 at 11:23 am
Sounds good, thank you!
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March 13th, 2013 at 3:43 pm
Courtney, also check out my post on Easter last year…x
This recipe is exactly what I need at the moment!! I am a strong Pitta type and have just realised I’m unbalanced – I’ve got all the firey things going on; I’m hot, have heartburn (for the first time in my life) and I’m angry and irritated too often at the moment. I’ve been drinking LOADS of milk and have been craving ice cream – which I haven’t eaten since I gave up sugar using your plan back in May! I’ve started reading Perfect Health to find cooling foods, so this recipe is perfect! I’m going to make it tomorrow and oh I hope it helps cool me so I can relax and get some sleep…
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March 13th, 2013 at 3:44 pm
The sleep thing – sooooo affected by whacky pitta! Perfect Health is perfect!
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Hey me too Sarah. I read Deepak’s book Perfect Health after you had recommended it. I suspected I was vata but I also have a fair amount of pita. Lately I’ve been expressing some pita type symptoms with bouts of anger and some acid reflux which increased while I was taking apple cider vinegar. I thought maybe I was over compensating my vata by having most of my food cooked – I prefer it this way and my digestion handles it better. I kind of forgot that our long hot summer could be having an impact too on my system. Guess its why I don’t like the cold winds of autumn and winter. Thanks!
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March 18th, 2013 at 11:19 am
I got told to take ACV for reflux as well, and it almost made me vomit! I had this soup last night though, and as I was eating it I could feel it was exactly what I needed…
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Gorgeous recipe. If you keep it thicker and more like a dip than a soup, it becomes tzatziki. Yum!
Can I just sympathise at how much water retention SUCKS? Between thyroidiness and polcystic ovarianness I can never predict the stuff. Drives me bonkers having to keep mulitple sizes of clothing in my wardrobe. I cant imagine having to be in the public eye while it’s happening, I hide from photos when I’m doing my Michelin Man impersonation.
When it’s particularly bad I tell my guy friends I’m not bloated, I’m just harvesting alien facehuggers.
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I’m finding Chinese medicine a great help with water retention. I’ve been learning about foods that drain ‘damp’ from the body with Adzuki beans top of the list. Unfortunately many of the damp producing foods are things I love, like avocado and nuts….
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Hey Sarah and readers,
Speaking as a TCM dietary therapist, be careful with things strait out of fridge and freezer. Our bodies are really sensitive and we don’t need to over cool – cooling foods being enough to give our body relief. In reference to Yin and Yang – extreme Yin (cold, like ice) will begin to turn to Yang (heat in this case)…so on this philosophy you’re going to add to the internal heat you’re experiencing long term.
On another more western perspective, our core temp is ~35C (and is the temperature needed for normal organ functioing), ambient room temp is ~20C – 22C, Fridge is ~4C and freezer is ~-4C. This is a huuuuuge temperature difference our bodies have to compensate for, considering a few degrees can be the difference to us enjoying the sunshine or whingeing about the weather; a fever or hypothermia.
The energy required to warm foods up in our stomach has to come from somewhere – our other organs. So this has a whole domino effect on our biology. It’s a very simple concept, but making sure foods and drink are body temperature or warmer will help our bodies keep us healthy and enable our digestion to extract all those delicious nutrients that we invest in.
Lookin’ out for the stomach, Becki
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Hi Sarah
Lovely recipie will keep it for when hot humid summer days hit HK. I am also a vatta pitta. I smiled when I saw this post was on Wednesday because this is also a strong wood day causing potentially firery problems for pitta personalities….wood feeds the fire:)
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Hi. I am wondering if anyone knows of a good alternative to yoghurt? My body doesn’t tolerate any dairy.
Thanks xx
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Hi Sarah, loving the Ayurveda theory, and your blog. I’ll save this one for when Summer arrives in the UK. Thanks for all your insight on AI too, all too familiar! Mary
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