WEEK 7: YOUR BEST COLD SOUP

Chilled Cantaloupe Soup

Photography by Sarah Shatz

    BY CHEF GWEN | SERVES 6

A&M: Cantaloupe soup is often overly sweet and one-dimensional. Not so with Chef Gwen’s Chilled Cantaloupe Soup, which is from her The Cool Mountain Cookbook, and is adapted from the Topnotch Resort in Stowe, Vermont. She adds orange, lemon, and lime juice to the fruit, giving it a healthy blast of acidity, and then spices the soup with cinnamon and salt. When you taste it, you first get the sweet fruit, which seems impossibly bright and refreshing, and this is followed by gentle waves of cinnamon.

    6 cups chopped cantaloupe, from about one 4-pound melon

    1½ cups orange juice

    ¼ cup fresh lemon juice

    ¼ cup fresh lime juice

    2 tablespoons honey

    ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

    ¼ teaspoon salt

    ½ cup whole-milk yogurt, thinned with a tablespoon or two of milk

    1 fresh mint sprig

1. Place all of the ingredients except the yogurt and mint in a large bowl and stir.
2. Place half the mixture in a blender and puree until smooth. Pour the soup into a large pitcher, and repeat with the remaining mixture.
3. Taste and whisk in more cinnamon, honey, or lemon juice if desired. The soup should taste sweet and tart, with only a hint of cinnamon. Chill until ready to serve.
4. Remove the mint leaves from the stem and stack the leaves on top of each other. Roll lengthwise into a tight “cigar.” Slice crosswise into thin strips.
5. Divide the chilled soup among 6 soup bowls. Garnish each with a swirl of the thinned yogurt and a sprinkle of mint and serve.

Photography by Sarah Shatz

    TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

    The soup separates as it sits, so give it a stir before serving and make sure it’s ice, ice cold. And don’t forget the mint and yogurt, which aren’t merely decorative—the yogurt enriches the soup and the mint adds a note of freshness.

        Chef Gwen says: “Although it calls for cantaloupe, a really ripe honeydew melon would make a lovely substitution.”

    ABOUT THE COOK

    Gwen Ashley Walters is a Phoenix-based food writer. Here’s her website: Pen & Fork (www.penandfork.com).

        Her favorite cooking tip: “Pureeing leftover vegetables with a little stock is a quick sauce-making tip. Just add an acid, like a splash of lemon juice or vinegar, and a pat of butter.”

    WHAT THE COMMUNITY SAID

    ENunn: “I cannot wait to make this; I usually find cold soups and creative approaches to cantaloupe ridiculous: why not just eat the fruit? But this is right up my alley. Thanks for sharing it.”