Serves 4

This is a great soup to make on a hot summer’s day because there is minimal cooking involved. Both the soup and the crab garnish can be made a few hours ahead, but don’t forget to put your soup bowls in the fridge as well, ideally an hour before serving.

4 medium fennel bulbs
1-2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp Pernod
1 charentais or cantaloupe melon, chilled
120ml natural yoghurt
Handful of ice cubes
Few dashes of Tabasco
Few dashes of Worcestershire sauce

For the crab garnish
150g white crabmeat
2 spring onions, whites finely sliced
2 tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and diced
Few dill sprigs, fronds chopped, plus extra to garnish
Few basil sprigs, leaves finely chopped
2 tbsp classic vinaigrette

1 Slice the base from the fennel bulbs and discard. Separate the bulb into layers, then thinly slice them into fine strips. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add the fennel strips with a good splash of water and some seasoning. Cover and sweat the fennel over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened without colouring.

2 Remove the lid and pour in the Pernod. Cook for about 1 minute until the alcohol has evaporated. Take off the heat and leave to cool.

3 Meanwhile, halve, deseed and peel the melon, then cut into chunks. Put the cooled fennel mixture in a blender with the yoghurt and 3-4 ice cubes, then whiz to a smooth purée. Pass the purée through a sieve into a bowl, pushing it through with the back of a ladle. Discard the solids. You should be left with about 300g of fennel purée. Set aside.

4 Put the chilled melon chunks in the blender with 3-4 ice cubes and whiz until smooth. Pass all of the melon purée through a sieve, then whisk the two purées together. Add seasoning, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce to taste, then chill while you prepare the crab garnish.

5 Put the crabmeat into a bowl and run your fingers through it to check for any bits of shell. Stir through the spring onion, tomatoes, dill and basil. Add vinaigrette to bind and check for seasoning.

6 To serve, place a large spoonful of the crab garnish in the centre of four chilled soup bowls. Place a dill frond on top of the crab. Pour the cold fennel and melon soup around the crab garnish, then drizzle the soup with a little olive oil.

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