Rosehip soup is a real Swedish delicacy. In Sweden, it comes readily available in Tetra packs, and children love it and often eat it at breakfast. But perhaps it can be a bit bland and over-processed while the old recipes were grown up and made from freshly foraged ingredients cooked with spices and sweet wine. My grown up rosehip soup is rich and cooked with orange and lemon peels, cinnamon, honey and sweet dessert wine. Serve it with lightly whipped cream or a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

I love foraging for food, and it happened to be that time of the year when there are lots of rosehips, so I picked them. Orange red to almost black, the fruit ripens in late summer through autumn. You can make rosehip soup on either fresh or dried deseeded rosehips, and the latter is available in whole food shops if you want to make it easy for yourself. Traditionally, we used dried rosehips as a prime source of vitamin C in the winter to make soup, herbal tea, syrups, etc.

All rosehip varieties are edible. Domesticated roses have larger hips and are easier to de-seed but tend to be less flavoursome than the wild, smaller variety. Especially important, you want to make sure to remove the fine hairs. For the smaller variety, the best method is to dry them before de-seeding.

My recipe uses the small variety and I dried, de-seeded and ground the hips into flour in a coffee grinder before cooking. The flour will keep for a long time if dry and once you have the flour, the soup only takes 20 minutes to make.

INGREDIENTS

400 g fresh rosehips / or 100 g dried and de-seeded shells
900 ml of cold water
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon
Fresh lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon powder
½ tsp nutmeg (optional)
2 – 3 tbsp or 50 ml honey
3 tbsp sweet, white dessert wine (at least)
2-3 tbsp of corn or potato flour mixed with a bit of cold water
Lightly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to serve

METHOD

Makes: 3 Time: 20 min using rosehip ground flour

ROSEHIP GROUND FLOUR

Option 1)
From already dried and de-seeded shells

Grind into a fine powder in a coffee grinder.

Option 2)
From fresh small variety rosehip

Trim top and end and cut in half. Dry in the oven for at least a few hours on 50 degrees with the door slightly ajar.

In a food processor, blitz the dried hips shortly until the hips split to release the seeds and hairs but are still large enough to not go through a sieve.

Use a sieve to separate the shells from the seeds and most importantly from the fine hairs.

Grind into a powder in a coffee grinder.

Option 3)
From fresh large variety rosehip

Trim top and end and cut in half. De-seed and remove fine hairs. Roughly chop and dry in the oven for a few hours or more on 50 degrees with the door slightly ajar.

Use a sieve to separate the shells from the seeds and most importantly from the fine hairs.

Grind into a powder in a coffee grinder.

ROSEHIP SOUP

Add the water to a pan followed by 150 ml of homemade rosehip flour, orange zest, lemon zest, cinnamon and nutmeg (if using).

Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 5 minutes for the flavours to develop. Strain patiently through a sieve into a separate pan.

Add the honey and dessert wine and reheat to a simmer. Add the corn or potato flour-water mixture and keep stirring until the soup thickens.

Add a generous splash of fresh lemon juice and more dessert wine to taste. Simmer for a few more minutes. Let the soup cool a bit before serving with the lightly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.