Chilled Cucumber Soup with Celery Seed Dressing (Lower Sodium)

A cool, herbal, summer soup with cucumber, topped with a celery seed dressing, micro-greens, and flowers. The perfect starter for a summer meal, or a side for brunch.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Ajinomoto. We’re thrilled to partner with Ajinomoto and have been supporters of MSG for culinary and health applications for years. You can see our previous recipes that include MSG by making our tomato vine vodka cocktail or our BBQ chickpeas.

Dietitians like to talk about sneaky sources of sodium in the diets of the American public. Many people who are given the advice to eat a low sodium diet, or who are working to control their salt intake, think it starts and ends with the salt shaker. But it doesn’t…which is why dietitians always get requests by the press to talk about sneaky sources of sodium (trust me…I just did an interview earlier this month). Soup, for example, is notoriously difficult to make lower sodium AND delicious. Salad dressing tends to be another source that flies under the radar. Which is why I’m writing this recipe for both.

So what do you do when you’re faced with the prospect of cooking for someone who needs to watch their sodium intake? What do you do when you’re cooking for someone who is vegetarian but you want to add a ‘meaty’ flavor? You add umami which is the fifth taste. Specifically, you add the purest form of umami: MSG.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), aka umami seasoning, is a simple solution to reducing sodium and increasing the delicious factor of vegetables. It helps round and enhance the flavors of nearly every food (from scrambled eggs to roasted broccoli, to tomato soup). By making a blend of one part MSG to two parts table salt, you can add flavor while decreasing sodium by 25% compared to table salt alone. And truly, it makes everything taste so much better. Test it for yourself with standard eggs in the morning and sit back as everything you think you know changes.

While I’ve extensively covered what I feel like is every question you could possibly have about MSG on my “MSG and Umami 101” post I want to cover a few basics here in case you’re not ready for that deep of a nutrition dive. 

MSG is a sodium ion plus a glutamate molecule. Glutamate is naturally present in foods like parmesan cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms and onions (and also breast milk). By taking glutamate and adding sodium, it makes it into a crystal structure that you can use at home, just like you would use salt. MSG creation is natural, simple and sustainable. A sugar (it could be cassava, sugar cane or corn, depending on where production is happening) is fermented, crystallized and dried. Through the fermentation process of sugar, glutamic acid is produced. A sodium ion is added to make it crystalline and stable. The compound is filtered (to remove any additional fermentation byproducts) dried and it goes into a container. If you’re lucky you get it in an Ajinomoto panda-shaped bottle. And not to brag, but I have a gold-tone one straight from Japan.

It’s widely been established that MSG is safe. Over the past 30 years, scientists, regulatory agencies and public health organizations have verified the safety. Three separate organizations (World Health Organization, Food and Drug Administration, International Food Information Council) with human testing concluded there was never a link between MSG and Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. Most recently in early 2018, the International Headache Society removed MSG from its list of headache-causing foods. And with the most recent DRI recommendations for sodium and potassium, MSG is listed as a possible strategy for sodium reduction. You can also check Why Use MSG for up to date news articles about MSG as they’re published (WhyUseMSG.com). 

For this sodium conscious summer soup, you’ll start with two pounds of Persian or small English cucumbers. Don’t swap them for standard American cucumbers that taste different and have a thicker, waxier peel. Persian, or English cucumbers if needed, are sweet and herbal. I personally like to think of this recipe as a more subtle, clean-tasting gazpacho. Paired with tossed greens and extra drizzles of the sweet but tart celery seed dressing, this dish serves up major flavor with light ingredients. Since vegetable soups and salad dressings are notoriously difficult to make low-sodium, MSG shines by adding a rounded umami flavor.

To find MSG in the grocery, check the spice aisle where you may see it as ‘Ac’cent’ or the Asian grocery aisle. If you head to an international grocery store, you may see several brands of MSG!

Chilled Cucumber Soup with Celery Seed Dressing (Lower Sodium)

INGREDIENTS

Cucumber Soup

Ingredients:

2 pounds Persian or small English cucumber, halved seeded and chopped

1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt

3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon Ajinomoto MSG

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Celery Seed Dressing

12, 1 Tablespoon servings (total yield 3/4 cup)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon toasted whole mustard seed

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

a few grinds black pepper

1/2 small shallot

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, divided

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

1/8 teaspoon Ajinomoto MSG

DIRECTIONS

1. To make soup: Add to blender, blend for one minute, thirty seconds until smooth and light green.

2. Refrigerate for at least thirty minutes.

3. Serve with dressed greens and an extra drizzle of salad dressing.

4. To make dressing: Reserve half the apple cider vinegar and half the extra virgin olive oil and set aside.

5. Add remaining ingredients to standing blender or immersion blender. Blend and with blender running, slowly pour in remaining oil and vinegar.