Hideg Meggyleves

Hideg Meggyleves (Medj Leh-vesh), or cold sour cherry soup, is a popular summer soup from Hungary. I was intrigued by this dish because I had never heard of a cold soup. Honestly, why not just drink it out of a glass and call it a “punch?” I have so many questions, but regardless, I had to make it.

If you hadn’t noticed yet, hideg meggyleves is a homage to my Hungarian ancestry which comes from my maternal grandfather; his mother was born in upper Hungary. I still don’t have my ancestry results yet, so I’m still just using the ancestry.com database to look at my family tree. My Papa was a bit of a mystery to me, so I was especially excited to learn a little about him. He didn’t ever talk about himself to the grand-kids and I always just assumed that he was German (the last name “Gaber” sounded German enough, right?). I visited nearly every summer until he passed in 2012 when I was 15 years old and I still didn’t know a thing about him. I also could not find much about him on ancestry.com, but after my grandmother passed in 2017, my sister and I were helping clean out their house and found an entire box of cards that my Papa had written to my Nana while he was serving in WWII. We also found his military jacket from the war and a lot of cute Polaroids of them together like this one:

Let’s Make the Thing!

A variety of cold soups are popular in Hungary, but sour cherry is the most traditional. Since cherries are not yet in season here in Missouri, though, I had to make due with a less traditional method and materials. A lot of recipes made it seem like a sin to use canned cherries, but that’s what I went with; many recommend either fresh or frozen.
However, everyone has their own version of the recipe, so you can really make it your own. If you want to try a more traditional recipe, I recommend this one from budapestcookingclass.com, which I will likely try when I can get ahold of fresh cherries. The recipe that I used this time is from soupsong.com and calls for the pictured ingredients.

This version is very easy to make since you do not need to heat anything over the stove; you just whisk it all together and stick it in the fridge! First, whisk the cherry juice, sour cream, wine, and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. The recipe actually calls for “superfine” sugar and recommends you whirl it in a blender, but that didn’t go so well in my big ole blender. I just whisked the sugar in as is. Another tip that I can offer is to cut two holes in the top of your can and dump the cherry liquid out of one side instead of messing with straining the liquid out. I don’t know if this is actually a trick or just a well known method to get liquids out of cans, but if you didn’t try it before then maybe you should!

After whisking, stir the cherries in and cover and chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours and you’re done!

How’d it taste?

If you’re wondering whether or not you want to make this recipe, the answer is yes. The flavor upfront is more sweet and then you get the sourness from the cherries after that. It was definitely very refreshing with it being cold, and I can see why it’s a common summer treat in Hungary. Plus this version of the recipe has wine in it, so you could make it even more boozey and enjoy it that way, too 😉

The Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 1-pound cans of sour, pitted cherries, undrained
• 1 cup sour cream (“lite” is fine)
• 1/4 cup superfine sugar (which you can make in a blender or food processor)
• 1/4 cup tawny port or cream sherry

Directions

1. Whisk the cherry juice, sour cream, sugar, and wine in a bowl until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Stir in the cherries.
3. Chill for 3-4 hours.
4. When ready to serve, ladle into small bowls and just flick a little superfine sugar over each one. Serve immediately with silver spoons.