Cucumber soup is wonderfully refreshing and can be made in advance. The short cucumbers have a better flavour, but you can also use telegraph.

Ingredients

• 6 short cucumbers (or 3 large telegraph)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 3 cups non-fat plain yoghurt
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1¼ cups fresh mint leaves
• fresh chives and marigold flowers to garnish

Method

1. Peel, halve and de-seed the cucumbers. Do this by running a small spoon down the centre where the seeds are. It will easily lift them all out in one go.
2. Reserve one short cucumber or half a telegraph cucumber to use as garnish. Roughly chop the remaining cucumbers, put them in the food processor with the peeled garlic and process for about a minute until finely chopped.
3. Add the chicken stock, yoghurt, salt, pepper, lemon juice and half the mint leaves. Process for a further two minutes until the soup is finely pureed. Sieve.
4. Chill for an hour to allow the flavours to marry and the soup to become well chilled. If you're making the soup in advance, add the garlic and the mint leaves closer to serving time as the garlic will overpower the soup and the mint will turn it brown.
5. Fold the remaining chopped mint into the soup just before serving. Garnish with chives and marigold flowers and the remaining cucumber slices.

Cooks Tips

- The chicken stock must be delicate, preferably homemade. This can easily be made with chicken backs now available in supermarkets which should be gently simmered with enough water to just cover, an onion, carrot and bayleaf with a few parsley stalks and peppercorns. Simmer 2 hours and do not boil. it is quite strong in flavour.