Chilled Cucumber-Spinach Soup
Published June 10, 2025
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
- Total Time
- 6 hours
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes, plus cooling and chilling time
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
⅓ cup unsalted butter or avocado oil
2 medium leeks, trimmed, white and light green parts chopped
Salt and pepper
½ teaspoon pimentón or smoked paprika
1 pound baby spinach
2 large seedless English cucumbers, peeled and chopped (about 4 cups)
6 ounces silken tofu, cut into rough ½-inch cubes
3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Shiso or Thai basil leaves, for garnish
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 to 6 servings)
11 grams carbs; 27 milligrams cholesterol; 224 calories; 6 grams monosaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 19 grams fat; 3 grams fiber; 532 milligrams sodium; 6 grams protein; 3 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Melt butter in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Add leeks, season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the pimentón. Cook, stirring until leeks are softened, about 10 minutes, lowering heat as necessary to prevent browning.
- Step 2
Add spinach, season with salt and pepper and turn heat to high. Add 2 cups water and quickly wilt spinach, stirring. Remove from heat and spread out on a sheet pan or platter to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
- Step 3
In a food processor or blender, blend spinach mixture and cucumber in batches until very smooth, and pass through a fine-meshed strainer.
- Step 4
Taste and adjust seasoning. If necessary, thin soup with ice water until it’s the consistency of a thin milkshake. Chill up to 24 hours for the freshest taste and color.
- Step 5
To serve, put tofu in a low bowl, add sesame oil and soy sauce, and toss gently.
- Step 6
Ladle soup into chilled soup bowls. Top each bowl with tofu. Drizzle with more sesame oil and soy sauce. Garnish with torn or slivered shiso or basil leaves.
Private Notes
Comments
Step 2 is unclear: does the two cups of water that had been added to the spinach mixture also go in the sheet pan/platter to cool or is the spinach mixture alone removed from that water?? If the water also cools in the sheet pan, how can the slushy mixture be neatly transferred to the food processor/blender??
Presumably we strain the cooked stuff before spreading it out on a sheet pan? :)
Haven't made it yet but if I do I plan to skip the sheet pan business and just let it cool in the pot before blending. Washing sheet pans is a pain but waiting for something to cool is not. I'll usually use a wide deep skillet for something like this anyway, allowing for faster cooling.
I used 2-10 oz packages of fresh frozen spinach, 2 cups of water to cook briefly (so still bright green) and skipped the whole sheet pan since it’s getting blended anyway. I added a little more water but liked to have it thick. I upped the amount of smoked paprika to 1 tsp. To give it more flavor, I added about 1/3 c of white miso. I increased the amount of tofu to make sure everyone got a good dollop of that tasty mixture. It was an unusual treat for a hot day!
I can’t eat soy, so I substituted tahini for the tofu and just put a dollop on top of the soup when serving. Then I dotted sesame oil and my substitute for soy sauce, coconut aminos, around the tahini also on top of the soup. It was delicious and pretty and left a new flavor in my mouth with each bite. In the recipe, I made sure to add plenty of salt and pepper and I also included all of the sesame oil and soy substitute from the ingredients in the blending.
One really needs to add much more spice than is indicated in the recipe. In addition, this is not a recipe for silken tofu. Silken tofu is too fragile and does not lend itself to being cut into cubes. In order to make this recipe more palatable I added much more basil.