Recipe of the week: sour cherry soup

This Hungarian delicacy may seem like an odd choice, at first, to make on hot summer days. However, it is actually the perfect dish if you want to cool down as this soup is served and meant to be eaten cold.

It may seem like a dessert, but it is actually not, at least not in most places. Sour cherry soup is offered just like any other soup, making it very popular among children, especially since whipped cream often complements it. It is the perfect dish to start a summer luncheon with or to commence an evening feast. However, its rich, fresh, creamy taste is so delicious and filling that you may not need (or want) to eat anything else afterwards.

History of the soup

Although nowadays, the dish is offered in several restaurants all over Europe,

it originated in Hungary and can be seen as evidence of the mixing of Asian and Continental European influences in Hungarian cuisine.

It is a known dish in the neighbouring countries like Austria, Slovakia and Poland, but Hungarian emigrants even introduced it to Americans and Canadians.

Apart from the basic ingredients, the recipe for sour cherry soup seems to vary from household to household. Special ingredients include extra fruit (both canned and fresh sour cherries and regular cherries), red or white wine, fresh cream and occasionally even some vanilla ice cream.

Sour cherry is the only fruit for which the currently still in-use Hungarian word – meggy – has Finno-Ugric origins, suggesting that

Hungarians have been familiar with the fruit since before conquering the Carpathian Basin, although it is unsure when the tradition of this delicious soup started.