Blueberry Soup with Caramelised Nut Clusters

Aka: Blabarsoppa med karamelliserade notter!  Swedish, don't you know? :=)  Blueberry soup has me intrigued, as the influencers say.  Or as Cherry the English YouTuber often says - "Colour me intrigued!"  I've made an Israeli fruit soup many years ago which was pretty tasty: made with fresh cherries, which took me forever to de-pit with just a knife and fingers.  But blueberry soup is new to me, and possibly you.  And no need for a cherry and olive (de-)pitter gadget.  

This dish is from Rachel Khoo's The Little Swedish Kitchen.  You know that lovely English lass from the TV show (and book) The Little Paris Kitchen, who married a Swede and moved to Sweden.  Let's cut to the chase - I tried making another recipe from this book - a poached chicken breast with pickled strawberry salad.  My dears, it was not good!  The chicken is poached in milk and stock; sadly it turned out like old boots!  The crows ended up with that. The salad was just ... odd, and the flavours didn't go well together.  Abandon ship!

Phase 2: I made this soup!  Not quite sure if it's meant to be a dessert or a breakfast, or a starter to a meal, as the Israeli cherry soup was.  There were oddities in the recipe (bits left out), and I am feeling a bit antsy about Rachel's recipes now.  The nut clusters are not sweet (a good thing in my opinion), and the soup is very fruity, and for me, best served chilled.  But not sure I'd ever feel the need to make this one again, to be honest.  (But it's worth a try - honest!!)  With a bit more sweetener, and a bit of spice, this could be great for breakfast!

      

crunchy, a bit savoury, and very fruity!

Serves 4:

ingredients:

For the nut clusters:

100g./3.5 oz walnuts

100g./3.5 oz pecans

50g./1.8 oz almond or hazelnut meal (aka ground almonds, or hazelnuts)

50g./1.8 oz golden syrup     see Notes

a pinch of sea salt flakes

For the soup:

500g./18 oz frozen blueberries

1 banana, sliced

2 Tbs water

a pinch of sea salt

sugar or honey (optional)

4 heaped Tbs plain yoghurt, to serve -  Greek-style is great here!

yep, blueberries!

walnuts

one guess!  Yep, a bananaaa

Method:

On goes your oven to 200C/390F to get toasty, while you roughly chop your nuts, and toss with the nut meal, golden syrup and salt

Line a baking sheet with baking paper, and spread the nuts over

Bake for around 20 minutes till toasty and golden (or kinda dark in this case), stirring every so often

Now for the soup - the blueberries and sliced banana go into a saucepan with the water and salt

Whack on the saucepan lid, and let the fruit simmer on a medium heat for a few minutes, giving it a stir here and there

When the berries have softened (Rachel says melted), and it's starting to bubble, let it simmer for another 2 minutes

Cool for a few minutes, then zap in the food processor - you can add a bit of water if you want it a bit looser in consistency - I ended up adding 12 Tbs of water (12 x 15 mL=180 mL)!

And throw in a bit more sweetener, if you fancy (and maybe a tiny bit of cinnamon?)

Rachel says you can serve this warm or chilled, with a swirl of yoghurt and some nut clusters on the top of your bowl or mug

Notes:

I reckon you could use other berries or fruits of your choice, like the afore-mentioned cherries

Just FYI: 1 banana weighs on average 118g./4 oz; the ladyfinger I used weighed 170g., and after peeling was 90g.

If you don't have golden syrup, use honey or maple syrup - and I reckon you could add a wee bit more than 50g.!

I made this recipe for BKD Cookbook Club, hosted by Jo each month.  We are doing Scandi recipes this month, from a cookbook of your choosing.  I do actually have a massive tome of Nordic cooking, but grabbed Rachel's as it was close to hand.  

pecans

nutty clusters ingredients

and baked till golden (brown)

fruit ready for "melting"

mm, well, looking kinda weird but ...

blitzed in the food processor

spoon on the yoghurt and throw on your nuts! :=)