MANGO AND CUCUMBER/ TOMATO AND WATERMELON: Vegan Soups🌞
Usually when serving vegan friends (strict or otherwise)
I tend toward Chinese stir-fries, as wok-fried vegetables,
even with 8-10 ingredients are able to keep their individual
personalities intact.
Lately however, (this summer) with temps in the mid-nineties,
I've been tending more and more toward serving fruit
enhanced cold soups, with few ingredients, to ALL of my
friends...
Soups Like these 
CHILLED MANGO AND CUCUMBER SOUP
Makes 6 cups
2 mangoes (2 pounds total), peeled and pitted
2 cucumbers (1-1/2 pounds total)
3 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (Chinese parsley)
1 teaspoon salt
Finely chop 1 mango and 1 cucumber and set aside. Coarsely
chop remaining mango and cucumber and puree with 1/4 cup
water in a blender until almost smooth. Transfer to a bowl
and stir in finely chopped mango and cucumber, onion, lime
juice and 1 cup cold water. Place bowl in larger bowl of ice and
cold water and stir until cool.
Just before serving, stir in cilantro and salt.
from "The Little Hawaiian Mango and Papaya Cookbook"
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3097667-little-hawaiian-cookbook
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TOMATO AND WATERMELON GAZPACHO
SERVES SIX
I first made this during my sun-drenched days in Majorca. The sweet,
red Ramallet tomatoes were out of this world, and the group of old
ladies who taught me how to thread them together into a fine bunch
were the most animated and amusing seventy-something crew I’ve
ever met. My offering in return was this wonderfully sweet and
refreshing soup. Forgive my slipping it into the “simmered” section;
I know there is no mention of things bubbling away gently on the stove,
but it wanted to be with its fellow soups.
4½ lb/2 kg tomatoes (about 20), blanched, peeled, and coarsely chopped (10½ cups/1.9 kg)
5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
6 celery stalks, white parts and leaves finely chopped (about 3 cups/450 g)
1 small onion, finely chopped (1 cup/140 g)
2⅔ cups/400 g seeded and coarsely chopped watermelon flesh
3½ oz/100 g crustless white bread (about 4 slices), broken into small chunks
⅔ cup/150 ml passata (tomato purée) or tomato juice
½ cup/15 g basil leaves
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
scant 1 cup/200 ml olive oil, plus extra to finish
salt and black pepper
coarse sea salt, to serve
Croutons
5 oz/150 g crustless white bread (about 5 slices), broken into ¾ to 1¼-inch chunks
3 tbsp olive oil
1½ tbsp red wine vinegar
salt
First make the croutons. Preheat the oven to 400ºF/200ºC. Place the
bread in a bowl along with the oil, vinegar, and ½ teaspoon salt. Place
a grill pan over high heat, add the croutons, and cook for 2 minutes,
turning until all sides are slightly charred and starting to crisp.
Transfer the croutons to a baking sheet and place in the oven for about
12 minutes, until golden brown and crispy. Set aside to cool.
Place the tomatoes, garlic, celery, onion, watermelon, bread, passata,
and two-thirds of the basil in a blender (or large bowl, if using a
handheld blender) along with ¾ teaspoon salt and a good grind of
black pepper. Blend until smooth and then, with the blender still going,
add the vinegar and olive oil. Refrigerate until needed.
To serve, pour the soup into individual bowls and top with the croutons.
Scatter the remaining basil leaves over each portion, along with a final
drizzle of oil. Finish with a little coarse salt and serve at once.
from "Plenty More" by Yotam Ottolenghi
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20691056-plenty-more
Stay Cool Won't You? 
Yotam Ottolenghi
While undoubtedly inspired by the Middle East and Mediterranean, the food Yotam Ottolenghi has become famous for does not tie itself to any one area. Instead, he celebrates the mixing and blending of influences to create something new, a fact he readily admitted to The New York Times: "It's difficult to point my finger on the map and say, 'This is from here.' Sometimes I feature a traditional dish as it is, but I'm happy to draw on anything from the Mediterranean and east, all the places that have a lot of sun and use spices extensively."
While Ottolenghi himself has a wide range of tastes, the cuisine-bending menus at his delis and restaurants owe a lot to the diverse staff that creates them. It has long been the case that each Ottolenghi site offers something different depending on the head chef's background. Unsurprisingly, Ottolenghi himself has long championed the power of immigration and the movement of people, cultures, and ideas, especially since Britain voted to leave the European Union.
As we have seen, Yotam Ottolenghi — although not a vegetarian — has always celebrated vegetables. He highlighted his love for them to Tasting Table: "The number one selling point for me is how tasty they are. Vegetables are these incredible things that you can manipulate and play with and transform through cooking, way more than anything else. The versatility is incredible. With meat, you can do a certain number of things, which are great, but with vegetables, you can do so much more. For me, that is the most important reason."
Read More: https://www.thedailymeal.com/1244241/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chef-yotam-ottolenghi/
His Blog:
https://ottolenghi.substack.com/