Raw strawberry and lemon balm soup with mascarpone cream

Fruit and berry soups have a strong tradition in the Nordic countries. As a child, at least once a week, I enjoyed rhubarb, red currant or gooseberry soup. And bilberry soup, of course. And rose hip soup. These soups are based on homemade fruit or berry juice thickened with potato starch. Some weeks ago, I stumbled across Sabrina Cipolla’s amazing strawberry consommé. Inspired by that masterpiece and my fond culinary memories from my childhood, I came up with this soup. Mine is raw, though, because I dislike cooked strawberries.

Soup: Blend 750 g fresh strawberries and lemon balm leaves with some honey to enhance the natural sweetness of the strawberries as well as some lemon zest and lemon juice to enhance the acidity of the lemon balm. Let infuse and then strain through a fine sieve.

Cream: Melt 100 g white chocolate in 250 ml heavy cream. Allow to cool completely in the fridge. Add 125 g mascarpone and whip until fluffy.

Assembly: Place pieces of strawberries onto the soup. Pipe cream onto the strawberries and decorate with baby leaves of lemon balm and carnation petals.

I created this dish on the occasion of the Food Blog Challenge by Foodblogs Schweiz.