Strawberry Soup

Fresh berries are amongst my favourite foods and we take advantage of the yummy local berries every year by going strawberry picking. I typically pick enough to make mountains of jam, but opted not to make any this year, given that I've got an 8 week old and a stash of jam still in the freezer from last year.

But I couldn't skip the strawberry picking all together though this year. They're so much tastier (and cheaper!!) when you pick them yourselves. We always go to the Fraiserie de la Veille Grange, but somehow this year ended up at Fraiserie Gravel instead. The pickings were a bit slim this year and I gave up after 3/4 of a basket, as Logan started screeching every time I bent down to pick more. So we ended up with 2 baskets instead of the 4 I had hoped for. But good thing, as they quickly bordered going off, since we left them in the car all afternoon while picking a vanity and ceramic for the bathroom we're renovating. Not too smart, which we knew at the time...



So we've been eating mass quantities of strawberries for the past few days (yum!) and I've been hunting down new recipes to make with them. When we were on a Carnaval cruise to the Caribbean with my sister and husband awhile back, we were served all sorts of delicious fruit soups as appetizers. They all tasted like cream and were delicious (though I'm sure, not overly healthy!). So I searched out a similar recipe to make with my strawberries. I chose a recipe off of Allrecipes that used yogurt instead of cream, to make it healthier. I used Liberty plain yogurt, as it's nice and thick and omitted the cardamom, as I didn't have any. I would cut back a bit on the amount of sugar next time, as I don't feel it needed to be quite so sweet (you could always start with 1/4 C and add more in, as necessary). I served this as the start to a meal, as had been done in the Caribbean, but next time, I think I would perhaps serve it as a dessert instead.

4 C strawberries
2 C plain yogurt
1/2 C orange juice
1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C water
1/8 tsp. ground cardamom



1. In a blender, combine the strawberries, yogurt, orange juice, sugar, water and cardamom. Puree until well mixed. Chill and serve.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.