Fruit Soups

[Vera]

I am having a brunch in early August and for a first course, I want to do fruit soup
shooters - three flavors. I already have strawberry and canteloupe and wanted to do
a chocolate soup but I don't have any recipe for it. Does anyone have something like that
in their collection? Or perhaps a third fruit suggestion such as peach that tastes great?

[Vetter]

Deborah Madison's cold spiced plum soup (swirled with greek yogurt) is lovely. I've posted it on CH a couple of times already I love it so much. It's gorgeous and delish.

[Vera]

Vetter - I will search for the spiced plum soup. I won't use it for my brunch though since I plan on doing three shooters per plate and the greek yogurt swirl wouldn't show up since the containers are small. However, when I serve a cold soup in a bowl, I can see where this would looks very impressive. Thank you.

[Den]

I guess not a fruit but a chilled cucumber soup as someone else mentioned is really refreshing on an August day. It's really just a matter of peeling and seeding the cucumbers, adding some sour cream and pureeing in a blender. Depending on your taste, add some chives or other fresh herbs at the end.

[Vera]

A chilled cucumber soup sounds intriguing and refreshing - would you share the proportions of cucumber and sour cream? Is it only the two ingredients plus
an herbal topping?
Thank you.

[Den]

In looking back at the recipe, I forgot you also add chicken or vegetable stock. It's about 1/4 to 1/2 cup sour cream to a cup of pureed cucumber.

[Katie Nell]

I do agree that something green would be a pretty color combo with the other two. I do have a peach recipe that I could post for you when I get home from work today, if you're interested.

[Vera]

Katie Nell - I would love your peach soup recipe. Thank you.

[Katie Nell]

Peach Soup
I'm sure you could adapt this recipe to use fresh peaches too. I can't even remember what we've done in the past, but I'm sure we've used fresh peaches at some point.

10 oz. pkg. sliced peaches, thawed
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
dash ground nutmeg
dash ground cloves
2 T. water
2 T. lemon juice
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk

Drain fruit, reserving syrup. In 1-1/2 qt. saucepan, combine reserved syrup, 1 cup water, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, and cloves. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick. Blend 2 T. water and cornstarch and stir into saucepan mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice. Cool to room temperature. Combine syrup mixture, sour cream, and peaches in a blender, and blend until smooth. Stir in milk. Cover and chill.

[Pia]

Watermelon and lime would be good. Blueberry would be intriguing -- I've never tasted blueberry soup but there are a bunch of recipes online.

[anzu]

Mango gazpacho?

[sea97horse]

I second the green soup idea -- and it would make a great color addition to your canteloupe and strawberry. Cucumber and honeydew is a great combo...

[Pumpkinseed]

I am not usually a big fan of sweet fruit soup, but last week I was at friends' and was served a wonderful cold green fruit soup whose main ingredients were honeydew, kiwi and mint. Fresh blueberries floated on top as a garnish. It was a hot night, and the soup was pretty to look at, delicious and refreshing.

[chef chicklet]

Me too, I'm in favor of using the green melon along with strawberry and cantelope. Perhaps leaning towards more of the cucumber, to introduce another flavor? What a terrific idea, I need the ideas too!

[roxlet]

The classic is sour cherry, and there must be a zillion recipes for that on line. Sour cherries are just coming into the farmer's markets, and I always buy a ton and freeze them for later use. They freeze beautifully, and would be in great shape to make a soup in August.

[Diane in Bexley]

This is my Hungarian family sour cherry soup recipe, it is served in bowls. Not sure if glasses will work as cherries are sinkers.

2 lb. sour cherries, cleaned and pitted
1/2 cup sugar or to taste
1 cup sour cream (I use light)
2 tsp almond flavoring (I use Amaretto liquer)

In 2-3 qt. sauce pan, cook cherries, sugar, and 4 cups water for 10-15 min till cherries are cooked and sugar is dissolved. Make sure you taste mixture, we don't like it very sweet, you might need more sugar. Add almond flavoring or liquer, cook another 2-3 minutes. Cool mixture in storage bowl in fridge, will keep several days. Just before serving, mix in sour cream with whisk till very well incorporated. Serve cold. Serves 4-6.