Did you know that cantaloupe and ginger pair well together? I didn’t, but I do now!
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about chilled soups. I like to eat them, but for some reason I’ve never made one for myself. I keep buying vegetables thinking I’m going to throw them into my fancy new blender and create some amazing new soup, but then I forget and use the vegetables for other things. The most recent example is celery. I was thinking about making a light cream of celery soup and chilling it. But then I had this bizarre celery craving and literally ate the entire bunch of celery in two sittings. Yes, there was homemade blue cheese dressing involved, so perhaps that had something to do with it. Regardless, the celery was gone and I had no soup.
So when I heard on twitter that another virtual lunch was planned, this time centered around chilled soups, I knew I had to jump in. Do you remember our virtual BLT Lunch from a while back? Well, the usual suspects are at it again today. Cheryl, who resides in New York, is today writing from Singapore about her Mum’s Green Bean Soup Recipe, while Ellise writes from Paris about Zucchini-Cilantro Soup. And of course there are many more.
My original plan was to create a cucumber cantaloupe soup with fresh ginger and mint. But, as you might have guessed, I accidentally used all my cucumber and mint making something else (tzatziki, to be exact). So when I remembered last night that I needed to create a soup for today’s lunch date, I didn’t have much to work with. But there was no need to worry, this ‘minimalist’ Cantaloupe Ginger soup is delicious and refreshing and I’m kind of glad that I didn’t add the extra ingredients.
I think this soup would work equally well as a starter or a dessert if you want to serve it in the evening. But today, it will be lunch. As with all of my recipes, this one should be customized to suit your own taste. I added a bit of half & half at the end and felt that it smoothed out the flavors nicely, but feel free to experiment and see what works for you.
Chilled Ginger Cantaloupe Soup
1 cantaloupe, seeded and cut into chunks
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (or to taste)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tablespoon of honey (or to taste)
small pinch of salt
1/4 cup milk, half & half, or cream (optional)
Put cantaloupe, ginger, lemon juice and honey in a blender, and process until completely smooth. Add half & half (if using) and blend until combined. Taste and adjust amounts of honey, ginger or lemon juice if desired. Serve well chilled.
Yield: 2 servings
Other Chilled Soups from the ‘Let’s Lunch!’ Crew:
Don’t forget to search Twitter for #LetsLunch to see what the rest of the group is bringing to the party! And I just have to tell you one more time: I love my blender!
