Chilled Tomato Soup, Nordic-Style: The No-Cook Summer Recipe

Chilled tomato soup comes together in around 20 minutes: ripe tomatoes, peppers and cucumber, a splash of mild vinegar, all blitzed briefly and chilled well. No hob, no heat – just vegetables enjoying their moment in the sun.

Late July is peak tomato season here: outdoor-grown, local, sun-ripened and genuinely sweet rather than watery. This soup lives entirely on the flavour of its ingredients, which is why it tastes worlds better right now in high summer than it would in spring.

Ingredients

Serves 4:

• 1kg ripe tomatoes (beef or vine tomatoes)
• 1 red pepper
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 small red onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 slice of day-old white bread
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 tbsp skyr or crème fraîche
• 1 small handful of dill

Method

1. Wash the tomatoes, cut out the stalk end and roughly dice using a 20cm chef's knife. The long blade slices straight through in one go without crushing the fruit, so the juice stays in the tomato rather than on the board.
2. Halve the pepper, remove the seeds and white membranes, and cut the flesh into pieces. Peel and roughly dice the cucumber, then peel and quarter the onion.
3. Peel the garlic and press it straight over the vegetables with the garlic press. It distributes more finely than you could ever chop it, so the soup doesn't end up with any sharp little bits.
4. Cut the crust off the bread, soak it briefly in water, squeeze it out and add it to the bowl. It thickens the soup without making it heavy.
5. Blend everything together with the olive oil, vinegar and honey until smooth. If you'd like it extra silky, pass the soup through a sieve afterwards.
6. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper from the salt and pepper mill, then chill for at least an hour. Well chilled, the flavour rounds out noticeably.
7. Ladle into bowls, add a spoonful of skyr to each, and serve with chopped dill and a few drops of olive oil.

kjøk tip

With a raw soup like this, how you cut matters just as much as what you cut: the cleaner your cuts through the tomatoes and pepper, the fewer cell walls tear open – and the clearer the result tastes. A truly sharp knife from our Cutting range is no luxury here, but half the flavour. After that: always wash the knife by hand and dry it straight away, never in the dishwasher – heat and detergent wear down the edge and the handle. Sharpen the blade regularly, and it'll cut just as well in a few years as it does on day one. It's best to rinse the garlic press immediately after use, while the residue is still soft.

FAQs

How long does chilled tomato soup keep in the fridge?

Well sealed, it keeps for two to three days. On the second day, the flavour is often even rounder. Give it a good stir before serving, as it tends to separate a little.

Do I need to skin the tomatoes first?

Only if you want a really velvety result – otherwise, no. With a powerful blender, you can blitz the skins in and then pass the soup through a sieve afterwards. That saves you the whole blanching step.

What goes well with it?

Toasted bread with olive oil, thinly sliced radishes, or quickly pan-fried prawns. If the soup is going to be the main course, add a hard-boiled egg and a few cucumber cubes.