Chilled cucumber and tahini soup with spicy pumpkin seeds

If you want something to be rich and creamy and vegan all at once, tahini is often the big secret, ingredient-wise. Swirled through a sauce, a dressing or in a soup, as here, tahini is a wonderful way to enrich a dish. With the cucumber, lemon and herbs doing all the work at the other end to freshen and lighten things up, this is a perfect meal for a summer’s day.

Getting ahead: The soup can be made up to a day in advance: it keeps well and doesn’t lose its colour. Just give