Tea and Soup Recipes and a Tea Contest!

Tea and Soup - A perfect paring (Image Courtesy: Sanctuary T)

Green Tea-Infused Melon Soup - Seriously Soupy

Tea and Soup. Some may say that they are an unlikely pairing, but I think they make perfect sense together. Tea, on one hand, is a comforting beverage that soothes the soul -- just like soup does. Soup comes in all types of recipes -- which are all unique, but tasty -- same with tea and their various varietals and methods of preparation. Tea is healthy and believed to contain powerful antioxidants as is soup (when used with the nutritional ingredients). What I think is the most exciting (and a different way to cook) is that the flavoring in tea also works really well as an ingredient in soup -- both to compliment and enhance.

Various Herbal Tisanes  (Image Courtesy of Sanctuary T)

Now for the contest!
The folks over at Sanctuary T, a tea restaurant in Soho are obviously huge tea fans and are currently running a tea-inspired recipe contest until September 30th. All participants have to do is fill out a quick entry form with their tea recipe -- and this doesn't have to be a soup and tea recipe, but can be anything with tea -- tea cakes, tea pudding, tea rice, tea vegetables...you get my point.  The grand winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to Sanctuary T Shop and have their winning recipe featured on the Shop's website. The runner-up will win a free bottle of T-Dust Seasoning and a 2 oz. tin of tea of their choice. Whether you have a tea soup or another recipe that uses soup, you should enter! For official contest form, visit: http://www.shopsanctuaryt.com/recipecontest.

6 Tea and Soup Recipes 
1. Peach Soup - I can't think of a better way to enjoy the last days of summer than with a tea-infused peach soup. This recipe, from Epicurious, is not your typical peach soup, but I like that it uses white and yellow peaches, ice cream, and of course peach tea for a semi-healthy dessert-like soup.

Now that a pretty looking soup - Sakura Tea Soup by Appon's Thai Food

2. Sakura Tea Soup - This has to be one of the most unique soups that I have ever seen. A native Thai recipe by Appon's Thai Food, this tea soup includes sakura (Japanese Cherry Blossoms) -- whose purpose is mainly for display -- carrots, pickled radishes and beans that is topped off with hot green tea. After this, the flowers open and a beautiful soup is ready to be consumed.

3. Shiitake Mushroom and Green Tea Soup -Green tea is quite the popular ingredient in soup - perhaps for its high dose of antioxidants and earthy-like taste. This recipe, by Herbs for Life, uses the equally earthy shiitake mushrooms, noodles, kombu (dried kelp) and onions. Herbs for Life also notes that green tea, shiitake mushrooms and seaweed are believed to fight certain cancers. While I can't verify that, eating a soup like this can definitely be a part of a healthy diet.

Tea-Scented Pumpkin Soup by Han Feng from Food and Wine magazine

 4. Tea-Scented Pumpkin Soup - Now this is one soup that I'm really excited to make this fall. Pumpkin (and butternut squash) are definitely favorites of mine and the addition of Ceylon tea is a nice change of pace to those standard classic recipes.

5. Barley, Tofu, Pumpkin and Green Tea Soup - Another variation of a pumpkin soup, except this time with the hearty goodness of tofu and barley. Created by Peter Gordon, this chunky soup also includes leeks, red onions and green tea -that Gordon says is a "culinary feast."

6.  Green-Tea Infused Cantaloupe Soup - In the post one cantaloupe, three soups, I made a green tea cantaloupe soup and was shocked by how much I loved how it came out: a little earthy and naturally sweet. It was also very quick to prepare and used minimal ingredients -- cantaloupe, water, honey, lemon, apricots -- that can be easily modified to use another blend of tea like chamomile, pomegranate, white tea, etc.


Seriously Soupy Serena

One Cantaloupe, Three Soups

The Gang's All Here - One Cantaloupe, Three Soups - Seriously Soupy

(Back Left) Green Tea- Infused Melon Soup, (Back Right) Triple Basil Melon Soup

(Front) Prosciutto and Melon Mint Soup

Cantaloupe, the base of all of the recipes

The beauty of soups (and oh, there are so many beautiful things) is that no two recipes ever have to be the same despite using similar ingredients. Your lentil soup be a veggie-based soup and mine might have pork. Or maybe, you use red lentils and I use brown. The basic components and idea of these soups are the same, but its taste can be very different, depending on your ingredients – making  mom’s chicken soup very different than what you buy in a store. What is so great about this (and rather beautiful) is that the possibilities really are endless with soup making.

In a recent link rundown, I was inspired by Aimee’s three 3-minute chilled soup recipes and decided to give it a go myself by using one base ingredient (cantaloupe) and making three soups out of it.  For this soup recipe entitled, ‘one cantaloupe, three ways,' I made a prosciutto and melon mint soup, a green tea-infused melon soup and triple basil melon soup. Asking me to pick my favorite would be difficult, so I'll just say that they all had very distinctive flavors with strong hints of the sweet and yummy muskmelon.  The prosciutto melon was smoky and packed a punch thanks to the mint; the green tea one was a bit “earthy” but blended well with the apricot and the triple basil melon was like a light and refreshing smoothie-like soup with a peppery finish. After this experiment, I’ll never look at one ingredient the same way and (another beautiful thing about soups) is that you never have to.

Soupy Side Note: Since I only used one cantaloupe to create these soups, the recipe requires ¼ a chunk of cantaloupe, which made one serving. If you would like more servings, I would use one whole cantaloupe per soup and double up on the ingredients. But remember: there are no rules in soup making, so let your judgment and taste testing be your guide.

 Prosciutto and Melon Mint Soup

Soup One - Prosciutto and Melon Mint Soup

Ingredients:
¼ cup of cantaloupe, cubed
½ cup of water
¼ cup of Greek yogurt such a FAGE
2-3 sprigs of fresh mint

Directions:
Cut the cantaloupe, along with the prosciutto. Place in a bowl with water and add the yogurt and mint. Add to a blender and presto, you have soup. Let chill for 2-3 and serve cold.
 

 Green Tea-Infused Melon Soup topped with Dried Apricot- Seriously Soupy

Soup Two - Green Tea-Infused Melon Soup
Ingredients:
¼ cup of cantaloupe, cubed
3-5 bags of green tea
1 tablespoon of honey or agave nectar
1 tablespoon of lemon
3-5 dried apricots
Pinch of ginger or fresh ginger
2 cups of water

 Tea bags seeped in lemon, ginger and honey

Directions:
Boil water. Place tea bags in the water and let seep, along with ginger, lemons and honey for 10 minutes. Add the cantaloupe and apricots to soften. When cool (about 30 minutes), remove the tea bags and take out the apricots and cut lengthwise. Place in the blender, along with the rest of the contents. Let chill for 2-3 hours and serve cold.

Triple Melon Basil Melon Soup topped with Red Basil- Seriously Soupy

Soup Three - Triple Melon Basil Melon Soup

Ingredients:
¼ cup of cantaloupe, cubed
¼ cup of honeydew, cubed
¼ cup of watermelon, cubed
Pinch of ginger
Splash of lime
½ cup of water
2-3 sprigs of fresh basil
Garnish: red basil
 

Medley of Melons - Triple Melon Basil Melon Soup Prep

Directions: Cut up the melons and add them to a bowl with water. Add the ginger, lime and basil (you can also add honey or lemons, if you wish). Blend it together for a yummy and refreshing soup.   Top with red basil. Can be eaten immediately or chill for 2-3 hours.

What soups have you made in many different ways?

Seriously Soupy Serena