Blueberry Soup

I  have never actually had a dessert soup, but I have certainly heard of them. I was excited when I learned we'd be incorporating it into our 'fruit' mystery basket. We could have good the normal route of poaching or roasting fruit and using a compote or gelee, but those are things we do all of the time in pastry. For this dessert, we really stepped outside of the box, especially when we incorporated mint and basil.

I would absolutely serve this fruit soup dessert on a hot summer day. It's light, refreshing and the concept alone is intriguing. When planning dessert menus, it's important to think about your guests and seasonality - this dessert does just that. It's on the 'healthier' side in the world of plated desserts and it uses fruits that are in season (assuming you are serving in the summer!) Additionally, it's gluten free and if you removed the honey, it's a great vegan option.

It also easy and flexible, but still contains a "wow factor." You swap out the blueberries for mixed berries, raspberries, blackberries, whatever is readily available in the kitchen!

The primary components of this dessert include the following:

• Blueberry Soup
• Honey Herb Sorbet
• Fresh blueberries
• Orange segments
• Mint garnish

Production:
Honey Herb Sorbet
Ingredients: 3 1/2 cups orange juice; 2 tablespoons of honey; 5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; 1 1/2 tablespoons orange zest; 1/4 cup finley chopped fresh basil; 1/4 cup finely chopped mint

Process: Dissolve the honey in 1/2 cup of the orange juice. Once the honey has dissolved, add the remaining orange juice and the rest of the listed ingredients. Refrigerate until very cold, and prepare in an ice cream maker.

Blueberry Soup 
Ingredients: 1/4 cup sugar; 1/4 cup water; 6 cups blueberries; 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; 2 cups of fizzy water (La Croix, San Palagrino, etc) 2 oranges peeled and membranes removed; mint to garnish

Process: combine sugar and water to make a simply syrup. Puree all but 1/3 of the blueberries then strain. Stir in the simple syrup and lemon juice and refrigerate. When the soup is cold, add the fizzy water. Use the remaining fruit, oranges and blueberries, when plating.

Plating:
It's best to use a shallow bowl for this dessert so that your whole fruit garnish is not crammed together. I chose a simple white soup bowl and it worked perfectly. To plate, line the oranges in the center of the bowl and insert loose blueberries in between. Place a quenelle of sorbet on top of the orange segments then using a gooseneck, pour the soup around the mixture and garnish with fresh mint.