10 Chilled Soups for When It's Too Hot to Cook

You can't have a cold soup list without the king of cold soups — gazpacho. Raw tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, garlic and olive oil go in the blender and come out silky, cold and bright. One spoonful on a 90-degree day and you'll get why Spain built an entire lunch around it.

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Tarator is a Bulgarian classic, and it's the only soup on this list that doubles as something you could reasonably pour over a piece of grilled chicken. Garlic and dill sharpen the yogurt, and the walnuts break through soft and toasty like the good part of a coffee cake topping.

Nobody says vichyssoise out loud with confidence, so most of us just mumble the middle part and point at the menu (like you did until you finally learned the correct pronunciation of gnocchi). Underneath the name is chilled potato leek soup, velvety and mild and rich enough to coat the back of a spoon.

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Carrot ginger soup is typically a fall menu regular, which is why nobody thinks to make it when the temperature hits triple digits. The carrots go sweet and earthy, the ginger hums underneath with just enough heat and the whole thing lands somewhere between soup and smoothie. Swirl in some coconut milk and you've got the color of a sunset in a bowl.

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Almonds, bread, garlic and olive oil blend into something pale and creamy that tastes nothing like the sum of its parts. Drop a few halved green grapes on top and the first one that bursts will explain the whole deliciousness better than we can.

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Chłodnik comes out of the fridge a pink so aggressive you'll check twice that you made it right. It's beets and buttermilk gone tangy and sharp, with dill and cucumber cutting through like a cold shower. Someone, somewhe decided this bowl this pink wasn't complete until there was a hard-boiled egg floating in it, and that person was not wrong.

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Chilled melon soup is what you make when the cantaloupe hit peak ripeness and you have about a day to deal with it. Lime, mint and yogurt go in and the whole thing turns cold, tart and faintly herbal, which is a long way from the chunks in a fruit tray that are the last to go.

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Heads up. You're going to need the stove for this one but it is so worth it. Corn soup gets its sweetness from the cobs, not just the kernels, so don't throw them out. Simmered, blended and chilled, it comes out pale yellow and almost custardy, thick enough to hold a swirl of olive oil on top.

Tomato, cucumber, red pepper and onion handle the gazpacho part, while the watermelon takes the acid down and pushes it sweet without tipping into juice-box territory. Salt it more than feels reasonable and everything snaps into focus.

Frozen peas are usually bought for one recipe and then live out their days behind the ice cream. But today they're taking center stage! Blitzed with mint and a little stock, they turn a green so bright it looks color-corrected, sweet and grassy. A swirl of yogurt on top gives it a tangy edge that makes the mint pop.

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