Cold Soup

Fresh herbal overtones lift the flavor of this instant soup. White beans make a creamy base for soups, dips, and sauces.

Potatoes, barley, and buttermilk are a trio that I find blissfully refreshing in the summer, served cold in a soup.

The thing about hors d’oeuvres is that they should not only taste good, but they should look really cool, too. These do just that. You need espresso cups, sake cups, or fancy shot glasses for these. These “pea shooters” are great to make ahead and put together at the last minute. Drinking an hors d’oeuvre is the cool way to go!

Roasting red bell peppers is a snap in the convection oven because the heat can be so intense that the skin on the peppers chars without cooking the flesh. Pureed and thinned with chicken stock, they turn into a stunning and flavorful soup.

Roasting concentrates the flavor of tomatoes in this light, refreshing, easy-to-make soup. It’s irresistible either hot or cold.

Cold soup and hot shrimp—this is a fantastic combination on a warm night. Blending the honeyed sweetness of this summer melon with intensely savory vegetables makes this dish incredibly refreshing. And I give the hot, spicy shrimp a hit of freshness by grilling finely sliced mint right onto them.

One rule of thumb governing utensil purchases is to consider the cost of the item in relation to how often you'll use it. Since cherry season is so short, a pitter scores pretty low on the price-use ratio. But the formula is badly flawed, not taking into account how this gadget affects your life when you put it to use. By that reckoning, if owning a cherry pitter moved you to make this soup just once a year, it'd be worth the ten dollars or so you can expect to pay for it.

-Gazpacho can be made ahead and frozen. Defrost in the fridge overnight.
-Mayonnaise is an unusual ingredient, but we like the creaminess it adds to the soup.
-For 2 you will need 4 tomatoes, 1 small cucumber, and 1 small red bell pepper. For 6, you will need 12 tomatoes, 1 cucumber and 1 red pepper.

This traditional Thai-style soup is my personal favorite. I love coconuts, and this soup is all about the coco. I like to use different ages of coconut meat to get varied textures. A more mature nut makes a chunky soup, while a younger one makes a creamy soup. I also like to use a variety of hot peppers: jalapeño, serrano, and even the super-spicy Thai chile, just to get a wide range of spiciness. Some peppers are hot as you eat them, others after you eat them; my favorites are hot only when you stop eating them.

This is an adaptation of a recipe created by our local berry farm.

To make this slightly sweet dish such a delicious departure from other melon soups, Kinch briefly cooks vibrant Cavaillon and Charentais melons. Feel free to use any of your favorite summer melons, including honeydews or cantaloupes.

This soup is equally delicious served hot or chilled.

Beets and apples add filling fiber to each bowl; plus, apples' antioxidants may help prevent metabolic syndrome, a condition characterized by excess belly fat.

Tofu is a surprisingly rich source of calcium, which may discourage your body from storing fat, especially in the tummy region. Break out the bikini!

A bowl of this succulent soup can help you burn up to 30 percent more fat during a later workout, courtesy of the vitamin C in subtly sweet mangoes.

This tomato-Worcestershire-vodka soup gets served in shot glasses for fun. Look for the pickled veggies near the jarred vegetables in the supermarket.

A little taste of the Southwest to get you in the mood for a rowdy game of Texas Hold'em!

Thai red curry paste and unsweetened coconut milk are sold in the Asian foods section of some supermarkets and at Asian markets. Be sure what you're buying is coconut milk, not sweetened cream of coconut, which is used for cocktails.