Chilled Fennel Soup

Chilled Fennel Soup
4.7 (3 ratings)
This fully flavored chilled fennel soup will cool you down and fill you up on a hot summer’s day.This recipe is courtesy of Ottolenghi.
Servings
6
Fennel Soup
Ingredients
  • 70 milliliter olive oil
  • 2 1/2 teaspoon teaspoons fennel seeds
  • 3 large fennel bulbs, roughly chopped into 1-inch dice
  • 2 leeks, chopped into ½-inch slices
  • 100 milliliter arak, ouzo, or pernod
  • 1.1 liter water
  • 2 tablespoon chopped thyme
  • 1 lemon, half of the zest shaved into strips, half the zest grated
  • salt
  • white pepper
  • 20 gram dill, chopped
  • 10 gram mint, chopped
  • 5 gram coriander, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
  • 200 gram greek yogurt
Directions
  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. And the fennel seeds and fry for 30 seconds. Add the chopped fennel and leeks. Sauté over a medium-low heat for 10 minutes, until soft. Pour in the alcohol, raise the heat, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the water, half the thyme, the lemon strips, ¾ teaspoon salt, and a pinch of white pepper, and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove the lemon strips. Blend the soup with a hand-held blender. Leave to cool.
  2. Once cool, stir in the grated lemon zest, herbs, garlic, and yogurt. Taste, adjust the seasoning, and refrigerate.
  3. Remove the soup from the fridge 20 minutes before serving so that it’s not too cold when you eat it.