Cold Soup

"My daughter and son-in-law spend their summers on Stuart Island, one of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington," says Ann Ayres of Santa Barbara, California. "On my way back from a visit, I planned to stop in Victoria, British Columbia. My daughter suggested that I try Paprika Bistro. The beet soup I ordered there was delicious."

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 35 min We recommend you use only fresh local corn when making this soup. The supersweet corn on the cob sold in plastic-wrapped packages in supermarkets yields an unpleasantly sweet soup. To make this soup vegetarian, simply omit the king crab.

Salmorejo Cordobés In Córdoba, gazpacho is reduced to its most basic elements, with no cucumbers or peppers, and is known as salmorejo. It takes on a saucelike consistency but is still considered a soup and is served in small portions. It is scattered with chopped hard-boiled egg and julienne strips of serrano ham, both indispensable to achieving salmorejo's fullest flavor. Salmorejo is sometimes used as a dip.

Ajo Blanco Malagueño This gazpacho from Málaga gets its pure white color and creamy consistency from blanched almonds. Sweet green grapes are the essential counterpoint to the tang of garlic and vinegar. The addition of shrimp comes from chef Bartolomé Rodrigo Lucena.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Beets for this refreshing cold soup were sometimes finely diced, other times coarsely grated. We liked best whichever we were being served, and I still alternate, indiscriminately.

Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr

The cool sweetness of this soup is a particularly good match for the tangy grilled chicken with mustard-dill sauce. Serve it with extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less, but requires additional unattended time.

Low-fat buttermilk and nonfat yogurt provide the base in a refreshing, tangy soup.

Chef Louis Diat created this famous cold soup (without the peas, which are a nice addition) during his tenure at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York. Diat named the soup after Vichy, the resort town near his boyhood home in France. Hot potato-leek soup had been popular with French chefs for centuries, but Diat-inspired by his own childhood habit of adding milk to hot soup to cool it of-served his version cold. Exactly when vichyssoise first appeared on the hotel menu is unclear, but British food writer Elizabeth David claimed that it debuted in 1917.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The pink-peppercorn garnish gives this chilled soup a pretty spring look.

Simmering cobs in the corn-broth mixture gives the soup extra flavor.