Strawberry soup with custard

It is strawberry season and we have strawberries in abundance at the moment. I have cooked strawberry jam (in the microwave), made strawberry sauce which I always freezes for use later when strawberries are out of season, made salads, and so many more. Strawberries are so versatile and can be used in a variety of ways. 

This month’s monthly mingle is hosted by Mycustardpie and one must make something with custard! 

I have decided to make strawberry soup with custard. This strawberry soup is something between a smoothie and a mousse and a delicious pudding for summer! 

The strawberries are roasted, which brings out the strawberries flavour. You can add more yoghurt and less cream if you want to make it healthier! 

It van be served as is, without the custard, or with cream or even ice-cream. The soup served with the custard is particularly delicious and it will make a wonderful lighter Christmas pudding. 

I have used Mycustardpie’s custard recipe as a basis, but made it a bit sweeter. 

Ingredients:

For the custard:

150ml milk

150ml condensed milk

1 vanilla pod, split open

3 large egg yolks,beaten

15ml caster sugar

Heat the milk and condensed milk together with the vanilla pod in a heavy-based saucepan until almost boiling.   Remove from the heat and leave for 20 minutes so that the flavour of the vanilla can infuse into the milk.  Remove the vanilla pod.

Put the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until thick and creamy.  Add a little of the warmed milk to the egg mixture and whisk quickly. Add the egg mixture slowly to the warm milk and whisk to make sure that there are no lumps.

Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 15-20 minutes.  It’s ready when it coats the back of the spoon. Remove from the heat and cool down completely.

For the Strawberry soup:

600g fresh washed strawberries, hulled

250ml caster sugar

300ml strawberry yoghurt

250ml cream

extra fresh strawberries and mint to garnish 

Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC. 

If the strawberries are very large halve them and place onto an oven pan. Sprinkle with 125ml caster sugar and bake in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and cool down. Place into a food processor with the rest of the sugar and the yoghurt and process. 

Beat the cream until stiff and mix into the strawberry mixture. 

Spoon into individual serving dishes and drizzle some of the custard onto the top. Decorate with fresh strawberries and mint and place into the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving.