Vanilla-Roasted Peach Soup with Cardamom Cream

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It must be a busy time of year for food bloggers. Most of the food blogs I follow don't seem to be posting much these days—myself included. My life at the moment is crazy-go-nuts, and things probably won't ease up until the end of the school semester. I have actually done some baking though. For two recent birthdays at the office, I made a tres leches cake and a cream cheese and raspberry coffee cake. However, the problem was that I didn't have time to take a decent photo of the desserts let alone sit down at a computer to write a blog entry about them. I'll get around to adding those two recipes to the blog eventually.

But now, I'm back.

Thumbing through my Cooking Light cookbook, I found this recipe for peach soup. I wanted to make it for several reasons. First, I love fruit soups. They remind me of Europe. I don't know why fruit soups aren't more popular here in the US. Second, the recipe called for a vanilla bean. I'm sorry to admit it, but I have never used a real vanilla bean although I've seen it done many times on TV. And finally, I had a bag of amazingly wonderful Utah peaches that needed to be used.

This soup was very easy to prepare, even the vanilla bean part. The aroma of the house while I was roasting the peaches was true aroma therapy. After I took the peaches out of the oven, I took a bite. Yum!! One of these peach halves served with a scoop of ice cream would make a fantastic dessert. Katie and I loved the soup, and I now want to invite some people over for dinner and serve it as the first course. Katie and I did find out, however, that we like a larger dollop of the cardamom cream than what the recipe calls for. Next time, I may double that part.

Before all the peaches are gone, give this soup a try. Share with friends; they'll think your so continental.

Vanilla-Roasted Peach Soup with Cardamom Cream
From Cooking Light Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 3 good sized peaches, halved and pitted
  
• 2 Tbsps. sugar
  
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
  
• 1 ½ Tbsps. honey
  
• 1 ½ cups orange juice
  
• ⅛ tsp. salt
  
• ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
  
• ¼ cup sour cream, fat-free works well
  
• ⅛ tsp. ground cardamom
  

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, add sugar. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean, and mix with sugar. Discard bean. Add peach halves to sugar and toss well. Place peach halves, cut sides down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 25 minutes or until tender; cool. Peel and discard skins. Place peach halves and honey in a blender or food d processor, and process until smooth. Add orange juice, salt and vanilla extract; process until well blended. Pour into a bowl and cover and chill 2 hours.

Combine sour cream and cardamom. Ladles soup into bowls, and top with cardamom cream. Yield: 4 servings.