Tarator – Bulgarian Cold Cucumber Soup

What an amazing treat for a hot summer day: Tarator – Bulgarian cold cucumber soup. Cook and enjoy!

I was pregnant and disliked food with a passion for about a month, while husband was gone at an archeological site near our home city. As the village they stayed in had a pretty big Bulgarian population, he tasted for the first time Bulgarian cold cucumber soup or Tarator, as they call it.

Let’s say it’s incredibly tasty, perfect for a hot summer day or when you want to cook something fast, but still healthy.

As it doesn’t have any meet, you can also cook this as a vegetarian recipe.

Cold Bulgarian Soup Ingredients

  • plain whole milk Greek yoghurt (please don’t use low fat, it will taste horrible) (400 ml)
  • cucumbers (one big cucumber or 3-4 small ones) – about 300 grams
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • minced dill
  • salt to taste
  • cold water (200 ml) – add more for a runnier consistency, if you’d like
  • crushed wallnuts and mint (optional, we don’t add them).

How to Make Tarator

  • in a big bowl put the yoghurt, water and olive oil.
  • grate the cucumbers (yuo can leave the skin on, for extra taste and color)
  • mix them together
  • cut fresh dill (or frozen one), crush the garlic cloves and add salt to taste.
  • if you’d like some extra spice, add the wallnuts and mint.

Enjoy 🙂