Summery Watermelon Soup

Summery Watermelon Sips

We are just head over heels about our stylishly rustic soup.  It strikes the perfect balance of tart to sweet.  Who says we can’t summerize and make it our main dish instead of relegating it to a side.  Gather up your family and friends and go out with a bang.

 Slurps up!!!

Ingredients:

.   1/2 cup sugar

.   1/2 cup filtered water

.   12 basil leaves, bruised

.   5 cups watermelon chunks (experiment with yellow and orange)

.   3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

.   1 teaspoon lime zest

.   1/4 cup sparkling wine (as always we use Prosecco)

Directions: Place sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.  Once sugar has dissolved add the basil leaves and bring mixture to a boil, then remove from heat and let it sit for at least 15 min.  Then discard basil and let continue to cool to room temperature. Working in batches, blend 4 1/2 cups of watermelon with basil simple syrup and lime juice. Push juice through a fine mesh sieve, over a bowl or pitcher with a wooden spoon.  Cover and refrigerate 1 hour to overnight. To serve, add sparkling wine, pour soup into 4 bowls and garnish with remaining cubed watermelon (important for a textural element) and lime zest.

Experiment with this recipe, try adding canned tomatoes, english cucumbers, beets or granny smith apples we have done all 4 with great success.

Modern Day Forager