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Chilled berry soup a winner

Cool fruity appetizer for a hot summer night

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED JUL 2, 2023

A strawberry fan is a fun garnish for summer berry soup. A dollop of sour cream and a sprig of mint also would make a nice finishing touch. Kathy Morrison

Let me say right up front: Fruit soup is not a smoothie. The wine in it, for one thing, makes it an inappropriate liquid to be gulping in the car on the way to work.

Ingredients for berry soup — Berries, creams and wine -- fruit soup ingredients.

But it's a delicious starter for dinner on a hot summer night. It also can be a brunch dish or even dessert. It's quick, delicious and full of summer flavors.

Fruit soup became a thing in the 1980s as nouvelle cuisine began to influence home cooking. (It has a long history in Scandinavian cooking, but that's another post.) I discovered cold fruit soup in 1984 when Margaret Fox published her "Cafe Beaujolais" cookbook, named for the Mendocino restaurant she owned at the time.

She credits this recipe to a friend who grew the berries for the first version.

The soup became my family's favorite. I have played with the proportions and the liquidity quite a bit over the years. It's best served very cold, in chilled bowls or shot glasses.

The ingredients are flexible: Substitute Greek yogurt for the sour cream, for example, or change up the berry content. Add cherries if you have some. Be aware that if you use more than a few raspberries or blackberries, you might have more seeds in the finished dish than you can tolerate. (Puree the berries ahead of time and strain them, in that case.)

The superfine sugar suggested here is often called "baker's sugar," but it works well in liquids because it blends faster.

Want to avoid using wine in the soup? I finally found a non-alcoholic substitute with a similar bite and color: Unsweetened cranberry juice. Delicious!

Berries in blender jar — Red, white and blue in the blender jar.

Chilled summer berry soup

Makes about 6 cups

Ingredients:

3 total cups of prepared berries or cherries (my favorite is 2 cups strawberries and 1 cup blueberries)

1/2 cup granulated sugar, superfine if available

3/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt (regular yogurt can be used, but drain it first, then measure)

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup cold water

3/4 cup fruity red wine, such as zinfandel or Chianti, or unsweetened cranberry juice

Garnish suggestions: Strawberry fans, dollops of sour cream or whipped cream, mint sprigs

Instructions:

Place the berries and the sugar in a blender and puree until mostly smooth.

Add the sour cream, heavy cream and water, and blend until combined.

Pour the mixture into a pitcher or glass serving container. Whisk in the wine or cranberry juice. Chill the soup thoroughly before serving.

Serve in small bowls or glasses with garnish of your choice.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipe recipes fruit soup produce management farmers markets strawberries summer blueberries cherries Sacramento gardening

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Garden checklist for week of Feb. 8

Dodge those raindrops and get things done! Your garden needs you.

* Start your spring (and summer) garden. Transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.

* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots. Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).

* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.

* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions. Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.

* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.

* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.

* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.

* This is the last chance to spray fruit trees before they bloom. Treat peach and nectarine trees with copper-based fungicide. Spray apricot trees at bud swell to prevent brown rot. Apply horticultural oil to control scale, mites and aphids on fruit trees soon after a rain. But remember: Oils need at least 24 hours to dry to be effective. Don’t spray during foggy weather or when rain is forecast.

* Feed spring-blooming shrubs and fall-planted perennials with slow-release fertilizer. Feed mature trees and shrubs after spring growth starts.

* Remove aphids from blooming bulbs with a strong spray of water or insecticidal soap.

* Fertilize strawberries and asparagus.

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