Tarator (Cold Cucumber Soup)

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Cool, creamy, and incredibly refreshing, Tarator is a soup that’s made for warm summer days. It’s low carb, gluten-free, requires no cooking, clean-up is quick, and it takes less than 10 minutes to make. This cold cucumber soup recipe is sure to become a warm weather favorite!

A lot of countries around the world have traditional cold soups, including Turkish cacik, Ukrainian beet borscht, Hungarian sour cherry soup, North German sweet rye bread soup, French vichyssoise, and Spanish gazpacho. Today we’re featuring a cold soup from the Balkan region called Tarator. If you’re a fan of refreshing cold soups, this one is a must try!

What is Tarator?

Tarator refers to two very different dishes that share the same name. In Levantine and Middle Eastern cuisine it refers to a tahini and garlic sauce that’s served with falafel or fish, while in Balkan cuisine, most notably in Bulgaria, Albania and North Macedonia, it’s a cold cucumber soup made with yogurt. Different Balkan countries have their own variations, some seasoning it with dill, some with mint, and some include nuts. Other commonly used ingredients are olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. This Bulgarian tarator recipe is seasoned with dill and topped with walnuts. It’s enjoyed during the summer months when cucumbers are in season and serves as a welcome way to hydrate and cool down on hot days.

What to Do With LOTS of Cucumbers

Those of us who garden understand this scenario where one moment you’re admiring a cute little cucumber, and the next you’re buried under a mountain of them. It’s the same phenomenon with zucchini. Both seem to multiply overnight, producing faster than you can cook, bake, spiralize, sauté, or pawn them off on unsuspecting neighbors. But just as there are ways to use up bulk quantities of zucchini (e.g. zucchini au gratin, zucchini soup, zucchini fritters, zucchini bread, zucchini cake, gluten free zucchini muffins, how to freeze zucchini), there are also lots of great ways to plow through that miniature Mt. Everest of cukes. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Cucumber Salads: smashed cucumber salad, German cucumber salad, creamy German cucumber salad
• Pickles: refrigerator pickles, bread and butter pickles
• Relishes: dill pickle relish and sweet pickle relish
• Cucumber Sauces: tzatziki and cucumber raita
• Sandwiches: a classic cucumber and cream cheese sandwich or a delicious French connection sandwich.

And last but not least, using them to make cold cucumber soup is a perfect way to use them up!

Tarator Soup Ingredients

This takes just a handful of ingredients and the actual prep is a breeze (no cooking, just blending!). Here’s what you’ll need to make this cold cucumber soup:

• Cucumbers: The star of the show. Which cucumbers are best? Whatever you have on hand! Thick versus thin-skinned doesn’t matter because you’re going to remove it anyway. If the variety you have has a lot of seeds, simply remove them.
• Yogurt: I strongly recommend whole milk/full fat yogurt for the most flavorful and creamiest results. This can be regular whole milk yogurt or Greek yogurt (if using the latter you’ll just add a little more water to thin it out). And if you’ve never made your own yogurt, it’s extremely easy and so rewarding. Check out my tutorial on How to Make Yogurt.
• Dill: Fresh dill is a must. Alternatively, for a different flavor profile, you can use fresh mint. Though not traditional to Balkan cucumber soups, you can also use fresh basil or a combination of basil and dill.
• Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: This adds flavor as well as texture, giving the cucumber soup a smooth, silky texture and more cohesive consistency.
• Garlic: This gives the tarator soup some savory backbone and adds depth of flavor.
• Lemon Juice: This adds brightness, acidity, and a fresh citrusy tang that livens up the soup. Fresh lemon juice is a must.
• Walnuts: These are traditional to Bulgarian tarator and add a great flavor a nice contrasting texture, but you can omit them if you prefer.
• Salt and Pepper: This ties all the flavors together and brings the whole soup to life.

Chef’s Tip

Traditional tarator is not pureed in a blender. Instead the cucumber is very finely diced and stirred into the yogurt with the other ingredients. Some contemporary versions puree everything for a more refined texture and more cohesive consistency and the choice is entirely yours. I like to puree roughly 3/4 of the cucumbers and dill, reserving the remaining 1/4 to stir in at the end so that there are still some chunks.

Note about salting the cucumbers: Some recipes call for the added step of first salting and draining the cucumbers to remove excess water. While this step is important for making things like cucumber salad and relishes where you want to avoid a watery mixture, it’s completely unnecessary and counterproductive when making cucumber soup. You’ll be adding water to the yogurt anyway to thin the soup to the desired consistency, so there is no need to remove the excess water from the cucumbers.

Tarator Recipe (Cold Cucumber Soup)

This Bulgarian cucumber soup is extremely quick and easy to make. Here’s how to make tarator:

• Place the yogurt, 3/4 of the cucumbers, 3/4 of the dill, and the remaining ingredients, except for the walnuts, in a blender and puree until smooth. Add some water until the desired consistency is reached. Taste and add more salt and pepper as desired. Transfer to a large bowl.
• Finely dice the remaining cucumbers and finely chop the remaining dill and stir these into the soup.
• Cover and chill for at least one hour before serving.

That’s it! When you’re ready to serve it, pour the tarator into bowls and garnish with some chopped dill, a light drizzle of olive oil, and chopped walnuts.

This makes 4-6 servings depending on whether it’s served in a bowl as a soup or in a cup as an appetizer. If serving it as a light lunch or dinner, it needs nothing more than some good crusty bread to accompany it.

How To Store Cold Cucumber Soup

This will store covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

This soup does not freeze well.

Enjoy!

For more traditional soups from around the world try my:

• Zurek
• Solyanka
• Harira
• Hungarian Goulash
• New England Clam Chowder
• Japanese Mushroom Vermicelli Soup
• Caldo Verde
• Masoor Dal
• Scotch Broth
• Matzo Ball Soup
• French Lentil Soup
• Minestrone Soup
• Avgolemono
• Cullen Skink
• Hungarian Mushroom Soup
• Pozole Rojo
• Chicken Pozole
• Wonton Soup
• German Potato Soup