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the French, but they didn't gain recognition across the Atlantic until the 1980s. Chilled soups are
not only elegant and different, but free the cook from worrying about one course on the day of a
dinner party—you prepare them well in advance. They are particularly suitable for plush dinner
parties with many dishes. You are ready to serve the first course directly from the refrigerator.
These soups have the nutrition and satisfaction of a good hot soup and most are low in
calories and either fat-free or very low in fats.
TASTINGS Chilled soup varieties
Nearly any fruit is excellent as a base for a chilled soup. Examples are sour or
sweet cherries in red wine, raspberry in champagne, blueberry or lingonberry in
buttermilk, avocado, cantaloupe, cranberry, gooseberry, rhubarb, orange and
orange custard, lemon and lemon meringue, peach-plum, apricot, mix dried fruits,
mango and apple. The list is endless.
Some vegetables are also good for chilled soups such as zucchini, tomato,
cucumber, beets, spinach, lettuce and green peas.
Chilled soups don't appeal to everyone. They may be too novel items for the meat-and-
potato crowd. Many people are reluctant to attempt a new type of food (aren't there enough scary
things in life?) and chilled soups are new to many. Some of your less adventurous guests will
take a tentative spoonful and leave the rest. Others will demand the recipe and want second
helpings. When you serve a chilled soup at a dinner event, it provides both immediate appeal and
a promise of more unique courses to follow.
There are two general types of chilled soups—savory and sweet-sour. You can make
either with a chunky soup body or as a purée. You use little or no fat or oil—the greasy look is
unappetizing in cold foods. You may enrich the soup with sour cream, sweet cream or yogurt
because the fat and oil in these don't separate to float on top of the cold liquid.
Savory chilled soups are simple defatted soups. Only a few are familiar to North
American eaters—gazpacho, borscht, vichyssoise. None of these is a quick or easy soup to make.
A number of less-traditional ones that you can put together in less than 15 minutes are cucumber-
lime, curried cucumber, curried chicken, fresh tomato with red wine or zucchini-onion, to give a
few examples.
Sweet-sour chilled soups are often fruit-based, and they rarely take more than 15 minutes
to prepare. They are slightly sweetened, thin-bodied fruit concoctions, often with something tart
added to complement the sweet fruit taste. The tart choices are lemon, lime, wine, sour cream or
yogurt.
Chilled soups are scrumptiously refreshing on a hot summer day. An added decorative
garnish (tiny flower, leaf, complementing herb) is almost compulsory—the soup practically cries
out for it. For a truly elegant presentation serve a fruit-based soup in a small, scooped-out melon
half, and your guests can even eat part of their soup bowls. It is a delightfully attractive
presentation.
Points to Remember
¨
When planning your menu, make a clear distinction between appetizer salad (light first
course), accompaniment salad (heavier side salad to go with entrée) and hearty main-dish
salad.
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