Give me an entire crate of fresh blueberries and I’ll find a way to use it all up. Blueberry pie, blueberry muffins, blueberry crisps and blueberry jam. Shove a few fresh ones in my mouth between baking sessions. Onward! Over oatmeal, under yogurt and into smoothies they go.
While sifting through cookbooks in search of a few creative uses for this fruit, I stumbled across two recipes that struck my eye: blueberry soup and blueberry vinegar. Curiously, both recipes come from Nordic chefs — Mads Refslund, co-founder of Michelin-starred Noma in Denmark, and Katrin Bjork, the founder of food blog Modern Wifestyle. Both recipes are simple to prepare, yet deliver stunningly beautiful and delicious results.
The soup is not a starter. Rather, it’s a dessert that pairs the berry with its classic flavor buddies, thyme and lemon. A dollop of vanilla-enhanced whipped cream on top provides airy texture and elegant contrast to the dark, sweet soup that can be served warm or cold.
The blueberry vinegar recipe hails from Refslund’s cookbook “Scraps, Wilt + Weeds,” in which he reaches deep into the no-waste cookery bin. If you’ve overbought on blueberries, salvage the ones past their prime with this tasty vinegar that takes less than 5 minutes to make. Refslund also notes that the recipe works with other waning fruit, too, including crabapple, cherries and orange peels.
Both the soup and vinegar will result in leftover blueberry solids. Don’t pitch ‘em! That bowl of vanilla ice cream is hungry for some berries, too.
Reprinted with permission from “From the North” by Katrin Bjork, Page Street Publishing Co. 2018.
Reprinted from “Scraps, Wilt + Weeds: Turning Wasted Food Into Plenty.” © 2017 by Mads Refslund and Tama Matsuoka Wong. Reprinted by permission of the authors.
RELATED:
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram.
About the Author
