As the weather warms up chilled soups make a pleasant start to a meal. This one is really simple to prepare. No cooking required — just break out the blender.

3 cups buttermilk
1 medium english cucumber
3 scallions
small bunch parsley
small bunch dill
small bunch watercress
zest of 1 lime
1 T white wine vinegar or lemon juice
2 T extra virgin olive oil
white pepper
sea salt
yogurt
hemp seed oil

Chop the cucumber and scallions. Reserve a few sprigs of dill and watercress for garnish. Blend everything except the yogurt and hemp seed oil on high speed for a few minutes until almost completely puréed. For a very smooth texture you could strain this through a sieve. Adjust with white pepper and salt. You may want to add more of a tang to this soup with extra buttermilk or vinegar/lemon juice.

Garnish with some of the greens, a dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of hemp seed oil.

This could also be used as a sauce for something like grilled shrimp. The contrast between spicy hot shrimp and cool green sauce would definitely work well.

Celeriac, aka celery root, is a prime example of never judging a book by its’ cover — kohlrabi is also pretty high on that list. With very little effort this unique root vegetable can be transformed into a stellar soup, and goes down great on a frost-bitten winter night. We’ve been having some of those lately.

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