We feel very on the fence about fruit soups like the chilled cherry soup in the image above. We want to be open to them, but have trouble getting past the idea that we're really just eating a smoothie with a spoon. What do you think?
For many of us, calling something a "soup" conjures a specific image - it's usually savory, very often warm, and typically served as a main course. A fruit soup is usually the opposite of all those things, so imagining ourselves making or eating it challenges our idea of what qualifies as "soup." You say potato, I say po-tah-to!
Fruit soups actually have quite a long history, particularly in Scandinavian and Eastern European cuisines. Many of these traditional recipes are made with seasonal berries and stone fruits like cherries and apricots, though dried fruits are also sometimes used. They're often enriched with cream or other dairy, and you'll typically see them served cold or room temperature.
We're seeing more and more recipes for fruit soups these days, so the opportunity to experiment is definitely there! Here are a few recipes to start you off - do you think you'll give them a try?!
• Chilled Blueberry Soup from Epicurious
• Cold Sour-Sweet Cherry Soup from Big Oven
• Polish Strawberry Soup from About.com
• Summer Fruit Soup from Food Network
Related: How to Serve Soup at a Dinner Party
(Image: Flickr member Brett L licensed under Creative Commons)
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my aun't tried to make one once with on-the-way-out peaches, nectarines, etc., and it was so gross! pits and fleshy bits and skin and pulp...i'm sorry, but it was a hurl-worthy effort!!! she didn't seem to want to strain it, either...???? ugh.
I love them. We used to eat them at The Front Porch on the Upper West Side in the '80s.
I love cherry soup. It is really popular in Hungary.
Executed well--flavor, texture, and presentation wise--they can be so refreshing and surprising. Often, the soup can be garnished with something that gives it another texture.
Nope, won't do it. What's the point? I don't like gazpacho, either, so I don't know if it's a texture thing, or temperature thing or just a "meh" thing.
I had a bad first experience with a fruit soup and now I'm biased. I can see a cup of it before an Eastern European dish with potato or kasha (or meat obviously but I'm veg so not for me). That is, I can SEE it, it makes sense from a menu standpoint, but...bleh.
That said, I think my daughter would LOVE it and maybe it's worth giving it another try.
I love the idea! I haven't had one since I was very young.
soup is typically, in my experience, the first or second course, not the main.
Buy, I see what you're getting at. I had some red been soup for dessert at a Chinese restaurant last night- a Chinese colleague had ordered for us. It was fine, but not something I'm rushing to make at home. It was warm, too! but still...
I like them, but then, I like gazpacho and vichysoise too.
Unless the fruit in question is a tomato, I'm not down with fruit soups. Not. At. All.
Cold soups are just eeeew to me. *Warm* cherry soup, on the other hand, sounds like it might be reminiscent of pie filling, which might be okay... Mmmm, cherry pie.
Sour cherry soup is a traditional Hungarian dish, and absolutely lovely. It is less like a smoothie and more like ice cream. I also had strawberry soup in Russia, and it was very nice. Again, more akin to ice cream than what I normally think of as being soup. But because it is warmer than ice cream, you can get much more subtle and complex flavors.
I think the problem is that these dishes depend heavily on the quality of the fruit. And in the states, typical supermarket fruit really isn't very good quality.
@green-bean,
Chinese dessert soups are a culture-specific thing. I have yet to find a non-Chinese person who likes them (I also know many Chinese people who also find them weird).
They're strangely-coloured, really gloopy and often made of ingredients that one would consider savoury and not sweet at all -- beans, taro root, sesame seeds. Definitely not the Western idea of dessert at all.
a friend of mine made blueberry soup for an appetizer once. while it was kind of tasty, I couldn't help thinking it would make a much better dessert than starter.
If it tastes good, I'm all for it.
I'd have no problem having one for dessert or as something to cleanse your palate in between courses but I don't know if I could have it as an entree.
When made well they are wonderful. Plus I get to use my double-handled soup cups!
Love consomme as well.
I love cold fruit soups, especially in the summer.
It's not soup if it's fruity and cold. Sorry, not for me. Folks who love fruit soup are fortunate perhaps, but in my world, soup is warm, comforting and has no fruit.
I love love love soup. Even cold fruity ones, provided the fruit is fresh and "real" (supermarket standard won't cut it). I do tend to have them in small bowls at the end of the meal during the summer instead of a heavier dessert (okay, I do serve them with sablées or just shortbread sometimes). Although rosemary peach can be a nice starter before poultry. *shrugs*
love love love! but i have never had it cold ... i always boil up trade joe's frozen berries with a little lemon and sugar and then serve with yogurt, ice cream, creme fraiche, or whipped cream. it's served warm so it's basically pie filling - aka pie with no icky crust. i thought it was a german dish from what the german friend said who gave me the recipe.
it's actually quite healthy for a dessert. sometimes i don't even add the sugar and lemon - just dump a frozen tj's bag of mixed fruits in a pan and boil down a little. add yogurt and granola and it's a warming dessert.
i'll have to try the cold style in the summer. and i absolutely love those chinese bean soups. i've had them cold in the summer and hot in the winter. so filling - i've been wanting to learn how to make them for years now.
Oh yeah, and I also grew up eating ginataan, a warm Filipino fruit dessert, so it's not foreign at all to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginataan
can fruit cocktails count as a fruit soup? i like those.
i grew up in a mennonite family, eating so many foods that my friends thought were weird. Among those foods? Plumamoos, a fruit soup made with canned or frozen fruits and sometimes dried fruits, served hot or cold. We made ours with canned cherries, peaches, and pears, and frozen apricots and plums. The night we made it, we would eat it hot, often with homemade buns and some cheese. Then the pot would go into the fridge or on the porch (in the winter) and we would eat the cold soup all week for lunch or over ice-cream. YUM!
Unfortunately, i've tried making this with canned fruit from the grocery store, and it's terrible. This one, in my books, takes home cookin, start to finish.
I've always liked the idea of these - never managed to make one properly though. You can buy them readymade in litre cartons here in Finland - yummy berry ones.
Folks, get over it - you have to get your heads past calling this 'soup'! I grew up eating kisels, which is basically what you see here called "fruit soup". You could call it fruit pudding, or kisels - does that make it sound more appealing? It is NOT meant to be your main meal, it is sweet, and usually served cold, as dessert. So, don't call it soup!!!!
We still eat this all the time, esp in the summer when fresh fruit is plentiful. It is an extremely practical kind of dessert as you can put together many different fruits (other than citrus or tropical ones). It is the ultimate 'waste not' kind of recipe. If I have a couple of very ripe plums, a few soft peaches, a handfull of raspberries from the garden, a couple of strawberries - you have the base for your own kisels. Housewives in years gone by would never waste precious food - so this kisels was a way to use up whatever you had available. Ii just made strawberry rhubarb kisels tonight - yum! Just stop calling it soup - think of it as a fruit pudding for dessert, and give it a try.. By the way, you can serve it with vanilla ice cream, although traditionally in Latvian cuisine, you would serve it with cold milk. Some folks also make dumplings that they drop into the bubbling pudding as it cooks - kind of like a thin cobber with smaller dumplings. Try it!.