Hungarian Sour Cherry Soup

Any Iron Chef fans out there?

Anyone like to try weird food combinations?

Well, buckle up Buttercup, because today I’m going to take your tastebuds on a virtual trip to the beautiful country of Hungary.

I learned a lot about Hungary in the last month because my daughter recently completed the mother of all a very lovely school project on Hungary and Slovenia in celebration of European Union Day. The final requirement of her project was to prepare a dish from each of the countries she studied and share it with the kids and parents at school. No pressure.

For Slovenia she made a braided bread. Read about it here.

For Hungary, we could have gone the predictable route and made goulash. I’m guessing each kid who has studied Hungary for the past 10 years has brought goulash to school on European Union Day. I know this because it was the teacher’s first suggestion. “Just make a goulash and bring that in.”

Oh, no, no, no. I’m plenty predictable about a wide variety of things. But I…I mean, my daughter…cannot bring in the food that has always been brought in. Where’s the originality in that? Plus, cold goulash sounds gross.

Okay…perhaps my response to this situation actually was predictable. But they don’t know that.

So “we” did some research and decided to make another Hungarian favorite, Sour Cherry Soup.

Feast your eyes!

It certainly does have a ‘look’ to it, doesn’t it? Whoo-Whee!!! In the southern U.S. they’d say, “bless its heart.”

Sour Cherry Soup is a dessert soup that is served chilled. It’s actually not at all sour, unless you’re using super tart cherries.

“We” decided this interesting dessert would be best sampled in a shot glass.

Always keeping it classy over here.

For the record, I did purchase cute little spoons, but the parents didn’t use them. I think there might be an Irish drinking joke in there somewhere, but I’ll just let that be.

(I swear she was excited…just not about mom taking her picture.)

This soup would have tasted better to me if I had not seen what it looked like. Does that make sense? Very visual over here. When the soup settled, it had a grainy look to it. I think that might have something to do with the ingredients not mixing correctly? I made the recipe the first time by myself and then tried to correct for this problem when my daughter made the recipe, but it didn’t work. So maybe that’s just how it is? I’m not sure. A visit to Hungary may be needed to answer this riddle.

However, Handy Husband, the man who hates broccoli, cauliflower and celeriac, ate an entire bowl of it and enjoyed it! My daughter liked it too. The parents at school also thought it tasted alright and could see how it would be enjoyable on a hot, summer day. The Irish dream about hot summer days.

The soup kind of tastes like a runny, spiced yogurt. It’s made with cherries, sour cream, cinnamon sticks, cloves, water and sugar. The clove and cinnamon taste is very strong.

The biggest thing my daughter and I took away from this project was that it wasn’t about us.  It didn’t matter whether or not we fell in love with this dish. What was important was to understand why it is enjoyed in Hungary. Different cultures have different traditions, different tastes. If we don’t try, we’ll never know! If we don’t experience it, we’ll never understand. We might not be able to walk a mile in their shoes, but we sure can taste their Sour Cherry Soup.

That said, I’m happy this project is complete. School projects seem to take on a life of their own!

If you’d like to make the recipe, you can find it on the Visit Budapest website.

Other recipes in the Would I Make It Again Series:

Would I Make it Again: Cheese Tea

Would I Make It Again: Rhubarb Scones

Would I Make It Again: Korean Beef Bowl

Would I Make It Again: Chicken Rigatoni With Vodka Sauce