A Soup of a Day

I finally got around to hosting another dinner party in our busy household with the new born twins and a tantrummy toddler. As we were approaching the end of winter, I thought it appropriate to have a soup evening to bid winter farewell. Another reason for soup is that it can be made in advance and reheated when needed, the perfect meal for a busy household. It all worked out well, as that evening was especially cold. I decided to keep it small and invite only my youngest sister - should the kids make things difficult, I wouldn't be too embarrassed if the evening should fail.

I wanted to do everything soup, from welcome drinks through to dessert. When planning the menu, I just couldn't decide which soups to leave and which not, so in the end I made eight different soup dishes. As Murphy's law has it, the kids decided to break routine that evening, so we had to cram all the courses into a shorter time span, making it a bit difficult to thoroughly enjoy dessert. 

We started off the evening with a Vodka and tomato soup shooter, topped with a sundried tomato and basil leaf. This was served cold. I added extra Vodka when serving the drinks, even though the tomato soup mixture included Vodka. For some of us it wasn't easy to drink the whole shooter in one go, so we rather took small sips and drank as a sherry. I regretted adding the cream in the soup mixture, it also made the colour less red, so next time I'll omit this ingredient.

To accompany the welcome drinks, I served warm creamy potato soup bites with crispy bacon - this was served as an amuse-bouche. I left the potato soup a bit chunky and didn't mash all the way through. This potato soup is quick and easy to make, consisting of potatoes, onions, bacon, paprika, cream, milk, and salt and pepper to taste. This was a definite hit to start the evening of with.

At this early point in the evening, the kids decided to seek attention, so we had to put the 'souping' on hold for a while, this wasn't the plan, but at least we could be flexible.

After feeding and putting the children to bed, we could finally continue with the evening. The next course, or appetiser, was baby marrow soup with a dollop of crème fraîche, fresh basil and parsley, served with a side of basil pesto and sundried tomato toasted slices. Who would've thought that the plain old baby marrow could make such a delicious soup! The combination of the soup and toasties were an absolute winner and something different to serve guests. I will definitely keep this recipe for future use.

The first course before the main meal was creamy mushroom and biltong soup, topped with slices of biltong, fresh sliced mushrooms and rosemary, served with Gruyere cheese toasted slices. What a fantastic combination and the dish of the evening for me. The soup was chunky with a deep meaty flavour - everything a soup should be. My only regret - I only made enough for this one serving.

For the second course before the main meal, I served mini French onion soup bread bombs, and what a mouth bomb it was! I used hollowed out mini panini's, topped with Emmenthaler cheese and melted in the oven. Once melted to percfection, I filled each panini with French onion soup and topped with Gruyere cheese, and again melted in the oven. I also used the cut-off lids and melted Emmenthaler cheese on top. This was a cheesy and creamy treat, that is a perfect party starter. 

Finally the main meal - barley and vegetable soup. I served the soup with a side choice of rye bread and Mozzarella and herb bread. I also bought mini pitas to toast, but we were quite full, so decided to not serve it. Only I managed to eat all my soup, my poor husband and sister were so full, that they couldn't finish theirs - or so they said. This was my least favourite of all dishes. I do think soup require a deep meaty flavour to be a success. At least my husband had a lot of leftover soup for lunch the next few weeks.

A creamy cucumber and avocado soup was on the table as a palate cleanser, topped with dill. For me, this was really refreshing, my husband however, couldn't stomach the soup at all. This was so funny, as it's the first dish I've made that he couldn't eat, or bluntly refused, and I've made a lot of failed dishes in our time together. I bet it's because he was so full from the previous courses, but he felt real bad. One moment we will always joke about!

Dessert was a simple chocolate soup, topped with almond flavoured whipped cream and a basil leaf. The basil really complimented the dark chocolate flavour of the soup. This soup can be served hot or cold, so we voted on serving it hot, since it was such a cold night. The perfect chocolaty dessert to end a soup-tastic evening!

Having an all soup dinner was really interesting and fun to plan and experience. Who would've thought that a soup could be served as any course in a meal. This is a definite go-to type of evening for the winter, and perhaps a soup buffet evening is on the cards for the future. 

​The Invitation