National Soup Month - Make It A Party!

Since you have a whole month to celebrate National Soup Month why not make a party out of it! What a Soup-er idea!

Organize a Soup-Crawl! Round up a few friends and spend an afternoon or evening sampling a different cup of soup at several of your favorite local restaurants that specialize in great soups. Select a neighborhood that has many restaurants clustered together and actually do the crawl on foot. Check out the menus beforehand so that you will have a variety of soups to choose from. At the end of the evening take a vote to see who has the best soup in town.

Have a Soup Sampler Party at home!  If it’s just too cold outside to walk around even for a comforting bowl of soup then invite your friends over and ask each one to bring their favorite soup. Serve the soup in small cups so that everyone can try all the different varieties. Soup shots are a really fun way to kick up the fun. Use large shot glasses and line them up by each pot of soup. This works great with brothy and creamy soups. For stews and chowders, yes they are soups too, use small cups. Have crusty bread, crackers and a cheese platter to go along with the soup.

With this Tomato Basil Soup I like to make toasted cheese sandwiches and cut them into small triangles. Spear them with a bamboo skewer and add a pickle chip, grape tomato, basil leaf or all of these to the end of the skewer and lay one across each shot glass.

Tomato Basil Soup

Recipe Courtesy of Michael Chiarello

Ingredients:

1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 stalk celery, diced

1 small carrot, diced

1 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup chicken broth

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup heavy cream, optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Strain the chopped canned tomatoes, reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, to taste, drizzle with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion and garlic, cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted chopped canned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, chicken broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add basil and cream, if using. Puree with a hand held immersion blender until smooth.

Life’s not always a party for everyone but you can make a big difference in someone else’s life by giving of yourself.

Volunteer at your local Soup Kitchen. Soup comforts the soul and so does helping out a fellow human being in need. Volunteers are needed to help in soup kitchens and food banks. Mama’s Kitchen has been doing just this for over 20 years. Their motto is:

    

At Mama’s Kitchen we believe that every person is entitled to the basic necessity of life, nutritious food. As a volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization, we prepare and deliver food to men, women and children who are affected by AIDS or cancer.