Cold cucumber soup (Oi-maemil naeng guksu)

The cucumber provides a refreshing, crunchy texture to this summer soup and the seasoning creates a tangy, acidic flavour on the palate. Kenny Son suggests adding noodles, as his father often does, to make it a filling meal.

Cold cucumber soup (Oi-maemil naeng guksu). Credit: Hardie Grant Books / Jiwon Kim

• serves

  2

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

I can remember growing up eating this cold cucumber soup regularly during the summer months. It is so simple – almost too simple to appear on the menu of restaurants. Yet, on a hot summer’s day, it is one of the most refreshing things to have as a snack or a side with a main meal. When making this soup for our staff, Dad often adds some buckwheat noodles to make it a proper meal. This soup alone – without the noodles – is also an excellent cold appetiser. The key to this dish is adding ice cubes when serving, for that extra chill.

Ingredients

• 20 g (3/4 oz) onion, finely sliced
• 750 ml (25½ fl oz/3 cups) cold water, divided
• 260 g (9 oz) buckwheat noodles
• 2 short (Lebanese) cucumbers, cut into 5 mm × 5 cm (¼ in × 2 in) sticks
• ½ spring onion (scallion), finely sliced
• 2 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chilli powder)
• 2 tbsp guk ganjang (soup soy sauce)
• 1½ tsp coarse sea salt
• 3 tbsp brown-rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• ice cubes, to serve

Standing time: 10 minutes

Instructions

1. Put the onion in a bowl with 125 ml (4 fl oz/ ½ cup) of the cold water and allow to rest while you prepare the noodles.
2. Bring 4 litres (135 fl oz/16 cups) of water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the buckwheat noodles, and cook, stirring intermittently, for 4 minutes. Add 20 ml (¾ fl oz) of the cold water and bring it back to the boil. Once boiling, cook for 4 minutes more. Tip the buckwheat noodles into a colander and rinse under cold running water until they have cooled completely. Now run hot water over the noddles, then squeeze out any excess water.
3. Drain the onion and pat it dry on paper towel. Put the onion, cucumber and spring onion into a large bowl with the gochugaru, guk ganjang, salt, vinegar, sesame seeds and sesame oil and leave it to season for 10 minutes.
4. Pour the remaining cold water into the cucumber mixture, then add the noodles.
5. Divide the noodle soup between two serving bowls. Be sure to add the ice cubes for extra chill, as this makes a big difference.

This is an edited extract from Sáng by Kenny Yong-soo Son (Hardie Grant Books).

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.