Meggyleves — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

A chilled, creamy soup of sour cherries simmered with cinnamon, cloves, and sour cream — a sweet-tart Hungarian summer delicacy.

Ingredients

500g fresh or frozen sour cherries, pitted
800ml water
150g sugar
1 cinnamon stick
3 whole cloves
Zest of 1 lemon
200ml sour cream
2 tbsp all-purpose flour or cornstarch
Pinch of salt

Instructions

1 Simmer cherries in water with sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves, lemon zest, and salt for 15 min until cherries are soft.
2 Remove cinnamon stick and cloves. Blend half the soup until smooth for texture, leaving some whole cherries.
3 Whisk sour cream with flour until smooth. Temper with a ladle of hot soup, then stir back into the pot.
4 Simmer 5 more min until slightly thickened. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
5 Serve cold in chilled bowls with a swirl of sour cream.

Did You Know?

Sour cherry soup confuses many first-time visitors to Hungary — the idea of a sweet, cold, fruit-based soup as a first course is unique to Central European cuisine.