Chick Food (Chilled Persian Yogurt Soup)

Zach doesn’t like the following foods: cold soup, kiwis, melons, grapefruit, cucumbers, and things that stick in his teeth. There are others, but those are sufficient for now for illustrative purposes.

So last weekend when he was on a bike trip with his dad, I recognized an opportunity, and took advantage.

I love cold, creamy yogurt-based soups, but we never have them because, well, Zach would rather die than eat them.

I also forgot to mention that he generally doesn’t like foods when they are used for things other than their primary usage. Yogurt used for soup would fall into this category.

I found this recipe for Chilled Persian Yogurt Soup in the most recent Food & Wine. It is a fabulous issue, by the way. I happily flagged about 50 recipes and have already started ticking through them.

Chilled Perisian Yogurt Soup. It just sounds refreshing, healthy, and delicious, no?

What really intrigued me was that the recipe called for dried rose petals. I never found them in town, but I found a source for them online (Kalustyans). I didn’t plan ahead enough to order these petals and get them in time for the weekend, so I had to make the recipe without. And that worked.

It was ridiculously easy to make and involved lots of my favorite prep step: chopping. Chopping and preparing mis en place. Oh, and peeling!

Greek yogurt, ice water, walnuts, golden raisins, cucumbers, lots of freshly chopped mint, chives, and dill. Some ground sumac. That's it.

It’s almost cooling me down just thinking about it. It’s the perfect soup to keep a container of in the fridge for the weekend, ready to be spooned into a bowl at a moment's notice.

Chilled Persian Yogurt Soup, Adapted Slightly from the June 2011 issue of Food & Wine

1/2 c walnuts, toasted, cooled, and chopped

2 c plain greek yogurt

1.5 cups ice water

1/2 c golden raisins

1/2 seedless cucumber, peeled and finely diced

1/4 c chopped fresh mint

1/4 c chopped fresh dill

1/4 c chopped fresh chives

Salt and fresh ground pepper

Ground sumac (optional)

Whisk together the yogurt and ice water. Stir in all other ingredients, except for ground sumac. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Sprinkle with a pinch of ground sumac after ladeled into bowls to be served.

(If you want to use the dried rose petals, the recipe calls for 1/4 c. They should be soaked in cold water for about 20 minutes until they are soft, and then squeezed of excess liquid. They get mixed in with all of the other chopped ingredients.)