Superior Soup Service
By Marsha Fottler
Contributing Editor
This is the definitely the month to serve soup, either scratch made or from-the-can varieties, which have never been of better quality. I’m attached to the Wolfgang Puck selections and also those put out by Amy’s Organic as well as the Campbell’s Select Harvest line up. But no matter the source of your soup, how you serve it to family and guests makes a huge difference in enjoyment. Never underestimate the power of eye appeal. Try something different and think outside the bowl.
A good friend of mine collects gravy boats, china ones not metal. Some of them are Wedgwood, some Delft and some are inexpensive flea market finds she happens upon when traveling. The unifying feature of her collection is that all of them are blue and white. She serves soup in these gravy boats as a first course for a seated dinner and these ingenious “soup bowls” never fail to start a conversation. I like to serve gazpacho or chilled melon soups in martini or margarita glasses or Irish coffee mugs because the soups are so colorful that you want to see as much of them as possible. Those heavy Deruta mugs from Italy are a great choice for thick soups such as pea, lentil or clam chowder and for consume or broths, antique sugar bowls could be an option. Soup sliders, two sips of silken liquid you serve as an appetizer, are perfect for shot glasses but you could use little vintage cordial glasses too.
If you want to stay with the traditional white soup bowl, how about investing in some different shapes? Try square or triangle-shaped containers. I notice that trendy restaurants have already done this. And to give a plain round soup bowl a bit of pizzazz on the dinner table slip a brightly colored paper plate underneath. The seasonal collections that Belgian artist Isabelle De Borchgrave makes for Target are among the most beautiful I’ve seen at budget prices. Paper-plate chargers under soup bowls give people a place for their crackers or chunk of bread and it adds originality to a table setting. Just remove the paper plate when you take away the bowl.
The next time that soup is on your menu, go shopping in your own home and see what you can unearth as possible containers. I think you’ll be surprised at your own creativity. What an imaginative table you’ll set with something as simple as soup.
Chef Judi’s Soup Chat
- Avoid canned soups, almost all are very high in sodium and the ones that are not lack real flavor.
- Start with chicken stock as a base for chicken soup instead of water.
- Small hand blenders are perfect to mix soups such as cream of broccoli.
- You actually blend them right in the pot, avoiding spilling and transferring hot liquid.
- Use leftover spaghetti sauce as a base for spicy fish soup- it adds some depth and what else do you do with a half cup of sauce?