Little changes can make fruit soup even better

Since she's generally so over-the-top with butter and sugar, Paula Deen's not one of my favorite TV food folks.

I'm not saying that she doesn't create delicious food; Deen's food makes my mouth water, but it would be a challenge for this leanwizard to trim fat and cut calories while maintaining a dish's integrity and flavor.

Recently I caught one of Deen's shows and on it she shared a recipe for fruit soup. That recipe got me thinking - no one thinks of fruit soups in cold months.

Winter means hearty soups made from roasted meats and slow-simmered stocks while summer is the time for soups made with locally grown, impeccably fresh fruits. And, since fruit soups classically are served chilled, they're refreshing on a hot July day. Yet Deen's fruit soup required simmering, something most folks would rather not do in an already hot summer kitchen.

"So why," I considered, "should fruit soup be limited to a single season?"

Without seasonal constraint, fruit soup could be a low-calorie, health-sustaining lunch that boasts little fat or sodium and a lot of fiber and nutrients.

Scouring the Web and my cookbooks for fruit soup recipes presented me with far more options than I expected. Since it was Deen got me thinking about fruit soups, I headed to pauladeen.com for her recipe. That recipe calls for a variety of fruits; let's consider them:

Cantaloupe: It's amazing that these melons appear in my supermarket during winter months. It makes sense though, since while we're shivering, countries in the Southern hemisphere countries are in the peak melon season.

Pineapple: Seems I can find fresh pineapple at the grocery store year-around and when fresh isn't available, juice-packed canned pineapple makes an acceptable substitute.

Peaches: The only time I like a fresh peach is when it's tree-ripened and grown close to home. This time of year this is one ingredient that'll have to be from a can, preferably one packed with light syrup or natural juice.

Granny Smith apples: We can usually get this variety at the store year-round; no off-season issue here.

Strawberries: The Southern hemisphere provides most of the berries in stores this time of year. If cost is an issue, frozen whole strawberries, not in syrup, work well but do lose their garnish potential.

Deen's fruit soup also calls for pineapple, lemon and orange juices. When I made her soup, I used the juice from my fresh pineapple (1/4 cup), but I could just have easily used the juice from canned pineapple. I also squeezed oranges and lemons to give the soup bigger flavors and boost the nutrition profile.

Deen sweetened her soup with honey and granulated sugar. I gave nutritionally bankrupt sugar the boot and went with all honey for its natural flavor. Serve this new version with a swirl of reduced-fat sour cream.

If you close your eyes as you taste the first spoonful and you can almost feel the hot summer breeze - if just for a moment.

• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write him at don@theleanwizard.com.

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