Recipe: Strawberry Gazpacho & Blue Crab

/in , , /by

gazpacho

Editor’s Note: This recipe was contributed by Executive Chef Devereaux Greene from Herons, the Forbes Five Star, AAA Five Diamond restaurant at The Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary.

Cary, NC — Enjoy this refreshing take on gazpacho soup, a chilled classic.

A Recipe from Herons

Summer heat is no reason to skip the pleasures of a great bowl of soup, as gazpacho fans well know. Executive Chef Steven Devereaux Greene shows that there are endless ways to tweak this chilled classic to capitalize on the best of the local fruit and vegetable harvest.

Here’s a refreshing take that replaces the traditional tomato base with the vibrant flavors of strawberry and rhubarb, spiked with an Asian accent and topped with a glorious scoop of blue crab. It’s a favorite on Chef Greene’s seasonal menu at Herons.

Strawberry Gazpacho & Blue Crab

This recipe serves six.

Ingredients:

  • Strawberries, washed and sliced, 1 lb.
  • Jalapeno, halved and seeded, ½
  • Red bell pepper, roasted and peeled, 1
  • Ginger, grated, 1 Tbsp.
  • Lemongrass, sliced, 1 Tbsp.
  • Rhubarb, sliced, 1 stalk
  • Celery, sliced, 1 stalk
  • Cucumber, peeled and sliced, 1
  • Raspberry vinegar, 1 tsp.
  • Mirin, 1 tsp.
  • Ume vinegar, 1 tsp.
  • Elderflower syrup, 1 tsp.
  • Lemon oil, ¼ cup
  • Salt, to taste
  • Blue crab lumps, 24

Directions:

  1. Chill six soup bowls.
  2. Place all of the prepared fruit and vegetables into a blender.
  3. Add the vinegars, mirin and elderflower syrup to the blender.
  4. Puree on high until the soup is smooth.
  5. With the machine running, slowly drizzle in the lemon oil.
  6. Adjust the seasoning of the soup with salt.
  7. Pass the soup through a fine sieve.
  8. Pour 6 ounces of the soup into each of the chilled bowls.
  9. Garnish each bowl with four blue crab lumps and a drizzle of lemon oil.

———————————————————————————————————————————-

Recipe contributed by The Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary.