Finally, here in normally sunny San Diego, California, fall is here and It started with a bang and, when I say a bang, I mean a loud one. We had a huge thunderstorm with lots of thunder and lighting. It has cooled off considerably, so shorts are put away, and pants and jackets are back from many months of storage.
I absolutely love fall and always have. People ask me if I like it only because I live in a desert climate with mostly dry, hot weather. But no matter whether I lived — here or in Sweden, France or San Francisco, I have always loved fall. This season makes me happy, makes me want to take long walks and feel leaves underneath my feet and look at the changing colors.
Fall also makes me want to bake bread and cookies, and eat them in front of the fire with the kids and a cup of mint tea.
When we lived in Sweden, fall also meant much cooler weather, so naturally we spent more time indoors. But it also meant picking pears and apples, and making apple sauce. We also picked rosehips and made rosehip soup, a traditional Swedish snack or treat. It is served as a beverage or as a dessert with milk, cream or vanilla ice cream along with small almond biscuits. Packed with vitamin C, it’s a good snack to give the kids. They love it and it also boosts their immune systems.
We always picked lots of rosehips, dried them, and crushed them into a flour that I used to make rosehip soup or rosehip tea during the winter.
Here is my recipe for rosehip soup:
Ingredients
- 1 cup of dried rosehips
- 3.5 cups of water
- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 2-3 Tbsp sugar
Directions
- Bring rosehips and water to a simmer for around 20-30 minutes, until rosehips are soft.
- Puree soup with an immersion blender or mixer, then strain soup to remove peels and seeds.
- Add sugar and bring the mixture to a boil again, then reduce to a simmer.
- Whisk in a mix of potato starch and a few tablespoons of cold water. Keep whisking until you have a slightly thicker soup texture.
Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, a sprinkling of almonds and sweet biscuits or ice cream.
