Healthy Cold Soup Recipes

Traditional gazpacho is made with raw tomatoes and is a delicious cold soup for warm weather. In this recipe, we've tweaked it a bit, by roasting the tomatoes first, blending the roasted vegetables with some crusty country bread to thicken it, and serving it with chilled shrimp.

This take on gazpacho replaces the tomato with melon or grapes for a sweeter taste and gets its silky texture from Marcona almonds. If you can't find them, use skinless almonds and add 1 tablespoon oil and a pinch more salt.

Make this cold soup in the middle of summer, when garden tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers are at their peak. Start with 1 cup of broth, adding more to reach the desired consistency. Very ripe (and juicy) summer tomatoes will need less broth; less-ripe tomatoes will need more.

Gazpacho is a delicious cold appetizer or side-dish soup. We've added protein to this version to make it more filling.

You can substitute dill, cilantro or basil for the mint in this refreshing cucumber-lemon soup. An easy way to make crushed ice is to fill clean milk or juice cartons with water and freeze. Then place the carton in a large plastic bag and smash with a hammer.

Forget the tomatoes--this green gazpacho is full of cucumber, green bell pepper, green grapes and lots of fresh herbs.

This fresh take on gazpacho--a chilled tomato soup--is spiked with chopped chipotle peppers, which add a deep, smoky heat to the dish. The cilantro-yogurt swirl balances the heat from the chiles and makes a beautiful garnish. Serve this soup as a starter for dinner on a warm summer evening..

Yellow tomatoes have a lower acidity than their red cousins and several varieties are among the earliest in the season to ripen. Here they combine with cool cucumber and yellow bell peppers in a refreshing salsa. Grilled shrimp make this dish a more full-flavored and elegant version of shrimp cocktail.

Cold fruit soups are a refreshing end to a summer's evening.

The grains of rice disappear into the yogurt as it's simmered and stirred, thickening the soup and giving it substance. Serve warm or chilled, depending on the weather.

This cold cucumber-dill soup has a surprisingly seductive taste. The secret is that both the broth and the yogurt garnish are loaded with fresh (never dried) dill and chives. Serve as a starter or a light lunch entree. The recipe calls for “handfuls” of herbs; if you are relying on the grocery store instead of the garden or farmers' market, you'll need about one large bunch or one to two 2- to 3-ounce packets. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.

Though gazpacho originated as a soup made with bread, today tomato gazpacho recipes are often made with diced vegetables, tomato juice and seasonings, and no bread at all. It's a different approach, but one that's just as delicious, especially with a little seaside flair from Old Bay seasoning and lobster or shrimp floated on top. If you don't have time to cook lobster, buy precooked lobster or ask at the fish counter to have it cooked while you wait.

Swirling soups of different colors together, in this case cantaloupe and honeydew, creates a stunning presentation.