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Hideg Meggyleves (Hungarian Cold Sour Cherry Soup)
Sour cherries simmered with sugar, cinnamon and cloves, thickened with sour cream and served ice cold, the pink first course of a Hungarian summer lunch.
Hungarian · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 20 min · plus 6 h hands-off time
~350 cal · 2g protein · 40g carbs · 21g fat · 2g fiber · 35g sugars · 13g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Meggyleves is Hungary's great summer soup: sour cherries, meggy, cooked with sugar, a little lemon, cinnamon and cloves, then thickened with sour cream and cream and chilled until it is ice cold. It comes to the table pale pink and fragrant, with whole cherries floating in it.
To visitors it can look like a dessert, and some families do serve it that way, but in Hungary it traditionally opens the meal. On hot summer days it takes the place of the usual hot soup at lunch or dinner, before a main course such as fried chicken or a stew.
The cherries are the sour Prunus cerasus kind, not sweet cherries, and in season they are used fresh; the rest of the year cooks reach for frozen or bottled ones. The sour cream is mixed with a little flour and tempered with hot soup before it goes in so it does not curdle, and the soup is best made the day before so it has time to get properly cold.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 600 g sour cherries, pitted, fresh or frozenHard to find? 600 g bottled or tinned pitted morello cherries, drained - softer, and use less sugar since they are packed in syrup
- 1.2 litres water
- 120 g sugar, more or less depending on the cherries
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 4 cloves
- 1/2 lemon, zest strips and juice
- a pinch salt
- 200 ml sour cream
- 150 ml double cream
- 2 tbsp plain flour
Instructions
- 1Put the water, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, lemon zest and salt in a pan and bring to the boil. Add the cherries and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, until soft.
- 2Whisk the sour cream, cream and flour together in a bowl until completely smooth.
- 3Ladle about 200 ml of the hot soup into the cream mixture, whisking all the time, then pour it all back into the pan while stirring.✎ Chef’s noteTempering the cream with hot liquid first is what stops it curdling into flecks.
- 4Simmer gently for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until lightly thickened. Take out the cinnamon, cloves and lemon zest, add a squeeze of lemon juice and taste for sugar.
- 5Cool, then chill for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight. Serve ice cold as the first course, with a spoonful of whipped cream if you like.
Hungarian summer tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Great Hungarian Plain. The Great Hungarian Plain is paprika country, home of the herdsman's gulyás and rich, red-hued stews cooked in a bogrács cauldron. Cattle, peppers, and open-fire cooking define the puszta table.
🗺️
Hungary. Hungarian cooking is defined by paprika, which colors and deepens its signature gulyás (goulash) and countless braises. Rich, warming, and pork- and sour-cream-forward, it reflects a Magyar heritage and a love of hearty, well-seasoned comfort food.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Hungary
LecsóHungary’s summer pepper stew: sweet peppers and tomatoes melted down with golden onions and a generous spoon of sweet paprika.
Gulyás (Herdsman’s Goulash)The original goulash: a paprika-red beef and vegetable soup-stew born over open fires on the Hungarian plain.
BundáskenyérHungarian "fur-coat bread", slices dipped in seasoned egg and milk and fried golden.
Browse all Hungary recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Hideg Meggyleves (Hungarian Cold Sour Cherry Soup)?
Sour cherries simmered with sugar, cinnamon and cloves, thickened with sour cream and served ice cold, the pink first course of a Hungarian summer lunch.
Where does Hideg Meggyleves (Hungarian Cold Sour Cherry Soup) come from?
Hideg Meggyleves (Hungarian Cold Sour Cherry Soup) is a Hungarian dish from Great Hungarian Plain, Hungary.
Can Hideg Meggyleves (Hungarian Cold Sour Cherry Soup) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Hideg Meggyleves (Hungarian Cold Sour Cherry Soup) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Hideg Meggyleves (Hungarian Cold Sour Cherry Soup) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Hideg Meggyleves (Hungarian Cold Sour Cherry Soup) take to make?
About 6 h 35 min in all: 15 minutes prep and 20 minutes cooking, plus 6 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.
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