Recipes › Soups & cozy meals› Cold cucumber and dill soup with skyr
Soups & cozy meals · Easy · Serves 4

Cold cucumber and dill soup with skyr

A summery Swedish-style cold soup with cucumber, skyr, dill, mint, and lemon. Ten minutes of blending, no cooking, and the most refreshing lunch you'll have this month.

Anna Lind Harper
by Anna Lind Harper
Tested twice · Published 2026-06-07
A wide cream-speckled stoneware bowl of cold cucumber dill soup on a white marble counter: a pale spring-green soup with visible flecks of fresh dill, a drizzle of olive oil pooling on the surface, a scatter of crunchy diced cucumber, finely chopped fresh dill and mint, a small dollop of thick white skyr, a few thinly sliced radish rounds, and a flake of flaky salt. Beside the bowl: a small clear glass cruet of olive oil, a small bunch of fresh dill, a lemon halved cut-side up, and a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel. Soft midday summer light.
Prep
10 min
Cook
0 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
easy

This is the lunch I make on the hottest week of summer, when the oven feels personally offensive. A blender, a cucumber, a heaping cup of skyr, fresh dill and mint, lemon, garlic, ice cubes. Ten minutes and you've got a bowl of soup that eats like cold water flavored with the whole garden.

It's loosely Swedish (skyr is technically Icelandic but it's basically the same thing as the Nordic-style yogurts my grandmother kept in the fridge), and it pairs with toasted dark rye and a soft-boiled egg if you want it to be more of a meal. Otherwise it's the whole lunch.

“Ten minutes of blending, no cooking, the most refreshing lunch you'll have this month.”
Why this one earns a weeknight

What you'll love about it

  • 01No cooking. Ten minutes from cutting board to bowl. The hottest summer week deserves a recipe that asks nothing of your stove.
  • 02Refreshing in a way that hot soup never is. The ice and the cold skyr keep it cold-cold; the lemon and the herbs keep it bright.
  • 03Naturally high in protein from the skyr; about 12 grams per bowl without thinking about it.
  • 04Flexible: swap mint for basil, add a small handful of fresh spinach for color, top with toasted rye croutons or smoked salmon to make it a fuller lunch.
A clear glass high-speed blender on a white marble counter, the pitcher filled with chunks of cucumber, a heap of fresh dill fronds, fresh mint leaves, a heaping scoop of thick white skyr, and a few ice cubes, caught a split-second before the blades start, with the lid set askew on top. On the counter beside the blender: a halved lemon, a small bunch of fresh dill, a small ceramic dish of kosher salt, and a small clear glass cruet of olive oil.
Everything goes in cold. The ice cubes are how the soup stays properly cold from the blender to the bowl.
Ingredients

For the soup

  • 2large english cucumbers, about 1½ lb total, peeled if the skin is thick, cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 1½ cupsfull-fat skyr
  • ¼ cupfresh dill, loosely packed, fronds only
  • 2 Tbspfresh mint leaves
  • 1small garlic clove
  • 3 Tbspfresh lemon juice
  • 2 Tbspolive oil
  • 1 tspkosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 6 to 8ice cubes
  • ¼ cupcold water

To serve

  • ½ cupdiced cucumber, for garnish
  • 2 Tbspfresh dill, chopped, for garnish
  • 2 Tbspfresh mint, thinly sliced, for garnish
  • 4thin radish rounds
  • olive oil drizzle
  • flaky salt and cracked black pepper
  • ¼ cupskyr
Method

How I make it

  1. 01
    Blend everything cold.
    Put the cucumber chunks, skyr, fresh dill, mint leaves, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and ice cubes into a blender. Blend on high for 60 to 90 seconds, until completely smooth and pale spring-green. The ice keeps it cold and gives it a slightly fluffy texture.
  2. 02
    Check consistency, season.
    Taste. The soup should be tangy, dilly, fresh, with a small back-of-the-tongue garlic note. Adjust salt and lemon to your liking. If the soup is thicker than you want, blend in the cold water 2 Tbsp at a time until it reaches the consistency of heavy cream.
  3. 03
    Chill briefly if you have time.
    Pour into a covered container and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes if you have time; it gets even more refreshing once it's properly cold. If you're in a hurry, blend it with extra ice and serve right away.
  4. 04
    Garnish and serve.
    Pour into 4 wide bowls. Top each with a generous spoonful of diced cucumber, a small dollop of skyr swirled gently into the surface, a scatter of chopped fresh dill and mint, 1 or 2 radish rounds, a drizzle of olive oil, a flake of flaky salt, and a crack of black pepper. Eat immediately while ice-cold.
    A pair of women's bare hands in a white ribbed tank (visible at the shoulders, with a thin gold pendant chain) pouring the pale green cold cucumber dill soup from a clear glass blender pitcher into a wide cream-speckled stoneware bowl on the white marble counter. A small ceramic dish of diced cucumber, a small bowl of more skyr, and a small bunch of fresh dill sit on the marble beside the bowl, with a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel at one edge.
    Pour ice-cold from the blender into the bowl. Garnish at the bowl, not in the blender.
Near-top-down macro of a wide cream-speckled stoneware bowl of cold cucumber dill soup: pale spring-green creamy surface with visible flecks of finely chopped fresh dill and mint, a generous swirled dollop of thick white skyr in the center, a scatter of small diced cucumber cubes, two thinly sliced radish rounds, a drizzle of green-gold olive oil pooling in spirals, a flake of flaky salt, and a single cucumber slice perched on the edge.
A note from Anna

Use full-fat skyr if you can find it. The 0% versions are thinner and the soup loses the silky body that makes it feel like a real bowl of soup and not a smoothie. The garlic clove should be small; a big one will dominate the dish. And the ice cubes aren't optional; they're how the soup stays properly cold from the blender to the bowl.

What to serve with it

Round out the table.

  • ·01
    Toasted dark rye with butter
    Or rye crackers. The toast gives the meal a carb anchor.
  • ·02
    A soft-boiled egg, halved
    Lay it on top of the soup at the table. Suddenly it's a real lunch.
  • ·03
    A glass of sparkling water with cucumber
    Or a small glass of crisp white wine if it's a weekend.
Storage & reheating

Keeping the leftovers good.

Fridge: Keeps for 2 days in a sealed container in the fridge. The soup will separate a little; whisk or shake before serving.

Reheat: Don't. This is a cold soup. If it's warmed to room temperature, blend in 2 or 3 ice cubes to bring it back.

Make ahead: Best made within a few hours of serving (the dill loses its brightness overnight) but a 24-hour-old batch is still very good.

Freezer: Not recommended; the skyr separates on thaw.

Recipe card

Cold cucumber and dill soup with skyr

A summery Swedish-style cold soup with cucumber, skyr, dill, mint, and lemon. Ten minutes of blending, no cooking, and the most refreshing lunch you'll have this month.

Prep
10 min
Cook
0 min
Serves
4
Total
10 min
Ingredients
  • 2 large english cucumbers, about 1½ lb total, peeled if the skin is thick, cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 1½ cups full-fat skyr
  • ¼ cup fresh dill, loosely packed, fronds only
  • 2 Tbsp fresh mint leaves
  • 1 small garlic clove
  • 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 6 to 8 ice cubes
  • ¼ cup cold water
  • ½ cup diced cucumber, for garnish
  • 2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped, for garnish
  • 2 Tbsp fresh mint, thinly sliced, for garnish
  • 4 thin radish rounds
  • olive oil drizzle
  • flaky salt and cracked black pepper
  • ¼ cup skyr
Method (short version)
  1. 01Blend everything cold.
  2. 02Check consistency, season.
  3. 03Chill briefly if you have time.
  4. 04Garnish and serve.

Nutrition information is an estimate. See full nutrition disclaimer.

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