Chilled Sour-Cherry Soup

By Anna Kovel  Updated on July 13, 2019

Prep Time: 25 mins

Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins

Yield: 2 cups

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.

Originally appeared: Martha Stewart Living, July/August 2019