I tasted my First Chilled Melon -Cucumber Soup Today

It was still in the low 90's temperature outside Newton's Restaurant here at THD today, June 6.  So it was appropriate for Newton's Restaurant to offer in its Dinner Menu, a cold soup. This is my second year at THD, and as far as I know it is the first cold soup dish offered in the restaurant dinner menu. 

 I am not a lover of cold soup. The first one I have tasted is the French Vichyssoise.💚  I am biased to hot soups such as the Sinigang and Pancit Molo( Philippines), Hot and Sour Soup ( Chinese) and the Chicken Tortilla Soup ( Mexico).   

When I asked Emilia( our THD Dinner Host Manager for tonite) what is the featured soup of the day, she nonchalantly responded it is a cold melon soup with her voice sounding apologetic. I hesitated as I have never tasted a cold melon soup before, but I decided yes and responded Ok,  I want it.  I want to try it,  since my appetite has been finally restored after 3 days of almost zero appetite.

 It was a decision that I will never regret. The chilled soup was unexpectively deliciously and refreshingly cool.   Besides the melon taste I could taste yogurt and another vegetable, I am not sure of. The chilled soup was sprinkled with mints. I did some search and the other main ingredient besides the melon was cucumbers.  Here's the recipe of the Chilled Melon-Cucumber Soup.              

Ingredients

• 1 each lemon
• 2 each english cucumbers
• 3 cups casaba melon cubes (or most any other melon)
• 2 tbsp 'Swerve' or other sugar replacement
• 1/2 cup greek yogurt plain and full fat
• 1 tbsp fresh mint leaves sliced thin
• salt to taste

Instructions

• With a vegetable peeler, peel a thin strip of yellow lemon zest off the outside of the lemon. You want a thin piece about 1 inch long and 1/2 inch wide. Chop this very finely. Set aside. Juice the lemon. Also set this aside.
• Cut a 2 inch section out of the center of one of the cucumbers and cut it into small pieces, about the size of a pencil eraser. Set aside.
• Peel the rest of the cucumber, cut it into rough pieces and place in a blender, along with the melon cubes, sweetener, lemon juice and a dash of salt. Puree until smooth.
• In a small mixing bowl, mix the yoghurt with the lemon zest, cucumber dice and half of the mint slices.
• Pour the soup into 6 bowls, garnishing each bowl with a nice dollop of cucumber yoghurt and finally, dust with the remaining mint slices. Serve!

https://djfoodie.com/chilled-melon-soup/

💚Here' s a description of the first chilled soup, that I have enjoyed before the above melon-cucumber soup.- the French vegetable soup- vichyssoise.  

05

VEGETABLE SOUP

Vichyssoise

VICHY, FRANCE

4.1

SHUTTERSTOCK

Ate it? Rate it

Wanna try?

Add to list

MAIN INGREDIENTS

• 
  LEEK
• 
  ONION
• 
  POTATOES
• 
  CREAM
• 
  STOCK

This thick French soup is made with puréed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. There is an ongoing debate about its origin – some claim it has French roots, while others insist that the soup is an American invention.

One group of food historians say that the soup was invented by French chef Jules Gouffe in 1859, while others believe the original creator to be Louis Diat, a French chef who worked at the New York Ritz-Carlton. Inspired by the potato and leek soup of his childhood, he named the soup crème Vichyssoise glacée after his hometown of Vichy.

Today, the soup is traditionally served cold and is often garnished with fresh chopped chives.