Chilled Sour-Cherry Soup

Name: Chilled Sour-Cherry Soup
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 1.5 pounds fresh sour cherries, rinsed, drained, and pitted (4 ½ cups); 1 small clove garlic, minced (¾ teaspoon); Kosher salt; 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro, plus sprigs or blossoms for serving; 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh dill, plus sprigs for serving; 0.5 mini cucumber, finely chopped (⅓ cup); 2 scallions, finely chopped (¼ cup); Sour cream, for serving

By

Anna Kovel

Updated on July 13, 2019

chilled sour-cherry soup flecked with dill and cilantro — Photo: Mikkel Vang

Prep Time:

25 mins

Total Time:

1 hrs 20 mins

Yield:

2 cups

A refreshing yet intense soup to serve in small portions before dinner, garnished with herbs. Recipe adapted from The Georgian Feast by Darra Goldstein.

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds fresh sour cherries, rinsed, drained, and pitted (4 ½ cups)
1 small clove garlic, minced (¾ teaspoon)
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro, plus sprigs or blossoms for serving
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh dill, plus sprigs for serving
½ mini cucumber, finely chopped (⅓ cup)
2 scallions, finely chopped (¼ cup)
Sour cream, for serving

Directions

Pass cherries through a food mill to extract all juices; or purée in a food processor and strain through a medium-mesh sieve, skimming surface of any foam. (Discard pulp, or reserve for another use.) Sprinkle garlic with 3/4teaspoon salt, then mash into a very fine paste with the side of a knife. Stir into cherry purée.
Refrigerate, covered, until very cold, at least 1 hour. (Purée can be made to this point and refrigerated up to 8 hours.) Stir chopped cilantro and dill into soup and season with salt; refrigerate 30 minutes more.
Divide soup among 4 to 6 small bowls, and top each with cucumber, scallions, and herb sprigs. Serve with sour cream on the side.