Red seedless grape soup 赤ぶどうのスープ

We like grapes but the quality is sometimes hit or miss. The other day my wife informed me that the recent batch of seedless red grapes I had brought home had very tough skins. When my wife “processes” fresh fruits she donates the culls (damaged or slightly bad) to the resident wildlife (mostly squirrels and birds). Soon after my wife made her pronouncement concerning the quality of the grapes I went out to the patio where she was feeding the culls to the squirrels. The patio was littered with what appeared to be grape skins. When I asked her why, she said that she had already told me the skins were tough and apparently the squirrels agreed with her. They had peeled and discarded the skins before eating the grapes!  So what do you do when you have a big batch of grapes with skins so tough not even the squirrels will eat them skin on? My wife decided to salvage the situation by making “red grape soup”. I was not looking when she made it so here she goes.

This is a very simple recipe. I put the grapes in a sauce pan with several spoonfuls of sugar (no water) and turned the heat on low. I cooked them until the juice came out and they were soft. Then I put the mixture through a sieve.

This turned out much better than either of us expected. It was surprisingly good warm and even better cold. It has some thickness to it and is more like grape puree than grape juice, jelly or jam. It had a very refreshing grape taste. For rescuing inedible grapes, this is a good solution…sorry squirrels.