Roasted Nectarine Coconut Soup with Cardamom

When my mom was here visiting, she took us out for an absolutely amazing meal at Sutra in Wallingford. I’ve blogged about Sutra before.  This, though, was by far the tastiest meal we’ve had there to date. The first course was a cardamom grilled nectarine coconut soup with an arugula salad on the side. Oh man, was this good. The soup was served cold and I had to fight the urge to lick the last drops of soup out of the tiny bowl it came in. The soup was creamy and delicious and you could taste each element clearly—the nectarines, the cardamom, the coconut and it was served with an ancho chile drizzle on top for some spice. Eric raved about the salad—something he rarely does—which had arugula, ground cherries, olives, and candied pumpkin seeds with a truffle-thyme raspberry vinaigrette. When we went to the vegetable stand on Sunday, there were organic nectarines, which are a rare find at our vegetable stand. So I bought a bunch of them and decided to make the soup yesterday. This soup might sound a bit complicated, but really it’s very easy to make.

The Recipe

Serves 4

5 nectarines—fairly ripe, but not too ripe (or you could make this with peaches)

heaping 1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1 Tbls coconut oil

pinch of salt

1 can coconut milk

1-2 cups vegetable stock or water (depending on whether you like a thick or thin consistency)

green hot chili oil or some other spicy addition for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 F. Peel nectarines, cut them in half and remove the pits. In a bowl, mix together coconut oil, cardamom and a small pinch of salt. It’s fine if the coconut oil is in its solid form–you can just rub the mixture on the nectarines with your hands OR if it’s liquid, just brush it evenly over both sides of the nectarines. Make sure the nectarines are nicely coated with a little bit of the coconut-cardamom mixture. Lay them face down on a roasting/baking sheet. Roast in oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the bottoms are nicely browned/caramelized. Flip them over and cook on the other side for 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven. In the food processor, add the nectarines, coconut milk, 1 cup of the vegetable stock or water and blend until smooth. Add additional stock or water if you’d like a thinner consistency. Note: You can also skip the food processor and use an immersion blender in a pot to blend the soup. This weekend we received some of the wonderful Hatch green chilies from my god parents in the mail and Eric roasted them the other night, so we added a small amount of those to the top for some heat. You could also drizzle a little chili oil or even some chili flakes for some added heat. Serve cold or at room temperature, or if you prefer, heat slowly in a saucepan and serve hot.

It was slightly chillier yesterday and so I served the soup warm, made the arugula salad and bought a loaf of roasted garlic bread that I heated in the oven just before we ate dinner. I’ll have the arugula salad recipe for you tomorrow. Heaven!

Have you ever had peach or nectarine soup? Such an interesting base for a soup!