Here’s a new approach to “soup and salad”: a chilled soup with a salad garnish.

We were inspired by this concept from Chef Scott Conant of Scarpetta restaurants in Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Miami and New York City.

The idea is to create a substantial garnish that contributes eye appeal and compatible flavors to the bowl of soup. The photo shows microgreens, herbs and flowers atop tomato gazpacho. The greens are not dressed.

It‘s a summer idea: a new way to serve a bowl of refreshing chilled soup.

You’ll be eating the salad garnish with a spoon, so anything that can’t be easily scooped up should be diced, shredded or torn into navigable pieces.

You’ve got a lot of opportunity to mix and match. Pick three or four ingredients with different shapes and colors. A starter list of suggestions:

Soup garnished with salad. Photo courtesy Scott Conant | Scarpetta.

MORE SOUP GARNISH IDEAS

Whether your recipe is hot or chilled, check out all of these options for soup garnishes.

*We‘ve heard people call this “mescaline,” pronounced MESS-kuh-leen, which is a psychedelic drug. Mesclun lettuce mix is pronounced MESS-klin. The term comes from the French verb mescler, to mix, and refers to a mix of tender young salad greens.