Summertime Strawberry Soup - Sassy or Sweet

     Earlier this summer, our church had a huge garage sale (at our house) to raise money in order to send kids to camp.  For a week, my world was turned upside down as people dropped off donations at all hours of the day and others appeared to "preview" the goods.  It was actually like a seven day party; the workers moved heavy furniture around, unpacked boxes, and laid sundry items out on tables as well as sharing lots of meals and laughter with each other.  It was all worth it though - we raised over $2000 that benefitted seven children and their families.  A week after the garage sale, one lady of our church family had the core group of workers over for a lunch at her beautiful home.  Shari is known to be a gracious hostess and her elegant luncheons are famous for her special chicken salad.  She served the first course, strawberry soup, on her sun porch.  When I was handed my delicate little tea cup full, I took my first sip.  What a surprise!  I was expecting something sweet and what I tasted was quite sassy!  It was a strawberry soup that even a man would like - fresh, bright, and pleasantly tart.  Sherry was kind enough to send me the recipe, but admitted that she had changed it up a lot to achieve the soup we sampled.  I played around with the recipe as well and came up with the version that is posted here.  To be fair and equal to the old style ladies' luncheon strawberry soup, I have also included a sweeter version in this post.  This one is from Assistance in the Kitchen, a fundraiser cookbook available from Assistance League of Indianapolis here: http://www.alindy.org/cookbook.html  Jenn prefers the sweeter version and has asked me to whip it up so she can drink it as a smoothie.  Both soups are incredibly easy - isn't it nice to have a choice?

Sweet Strawberry Soup

 

Ingredients:

 

2 pounds (8 cups) fresh strawberries

2 cups vanilla yogurt

 

½ cup orange juice

 

½ cup sugar

 

Directions:

 

  In a blender, combine the yogurt, orange juice, strawberries and sugar in batches.  Cover and process until blended.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  Garnish with additional strawberries, yogurt, or fresh mint leaves.

 

Sassy Strawberry Soup

Ingredients:

2 pounds (8 cups) fresh strawberries

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon really great balsamic vinegar

1tablespoon chopped mint leaves

 

Directions:

In a blender, combine the strawberries, lemon juice, vinegar, and mint leaves in batches.  Cover and process until blended.  I think it tastes great right away, but refrigerating for a while probably lets the flavors meld.  Garnish with addition strawberries, mint leaves, or a drizzle of some really good balsamic vinegar.  A fruit infused balsamic such as raspberry or strawberry, is very nice to use.

                                       

                                                            What a choice...    

 

 

 

                                                             Sassy...Or Sweet?