Thanksgiving soups

[ludja]

Hi,

I'm interested to find out if people have any good ideas regarding an interesting, elegant soup for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm looking for something flavorful, seasonal, not too rich (have to save room for turkey to follow). Other good thing would be for soup to not require lots of last minute fussing...

My standby has been a wild mushroom soup (no cream) garnished w/croutons and creme fraiche....

Some other ideas I was tossing around are:

celery soup w/anchovy-celery toasts (from Saveur a few years back)

light shrimp bisque

watercress soup

Any other ideas or good past experiences?

Thanks

[mags]

Chestnut soup is wonderful, and you can do it with or without cream. Usually boozy, though. I've also been a fan of curried parsnip soup and soup made with jerusalem artichokes -- though both tend to be in the cream-of category -- ditto carrot soup. There's also a nice recipe in the Anthony Dias Blue Thanksgiving book for turkey consomme garnished with small almond dumplings.

[jackal10]

I'm making a pumpkin (actually a butternut squash) soup with dried morels and truffle oil for lunch today. You could add croutons and creme fraiche...

[elyse]

We recently had a discussion on favorite soups. I'll try to find it.

[marie-louise]

My favorite Thanksgiving soup is a carrot soup w/ orange juice as part of the liquid, and creme fraiche stirred in at the end to add some tartness.

[Chris Cognac]

Roasted Pumpkin, hands down...I made it the other day....so good, but make sure you have a good chicken stock, I used canned and it just was not the same as when I made my own stock.

[Mayhaw Man]

We generally have Oyster-Artichoke Soup sometime during the Holiday Weekend.

Rich, buttery, and full of plump, barely curled, fresh shucked oysters. I love that stuff.

It is also fun to sneak into the kitchen and pick out the oysters and the artichoke humks and put them on warm, slightly toasted French Bread. No ne else will appreciate it, but you, as the diner, will be glad you did.

[newsbabe]

Butternut squash with sauteed leek and chicken broth. Run it through the blender. Easy, beautiful, yummy.

[Cusina]

I make a pumpkin/sweet potato puree style soup in a chicken or turkey stock base that is delicious. Usually add curry, ginger and allspice.

[ludja]

Thanks for all the great soup ideas--

I never thought of chestnut soup. I've toyed w/the idea of chestnut stuffing or sidedish-but soup is great idea. Parsnips and sunchokes are good ideas too.

All the interesting squash variations and carrot soup sound nice.

As a side note on the idea of turkey consomme w/dumplings, I had to laugh b/c it echoes a tradition I grew up with. My Austrian mom makes a turkey soup made with the wing tips and giblets; then she makes 'palatschinken' (Austrian crepes); slices them up into 'noodles' and adds a few in each bowl. It is simple but actually pretty tasty w/the noodles.

Mayhaw Man-- The oyster-artichoke soup sounds really intriguing. Especially your evocative suggestion for a 'cook's treat' while it's cooking. Do you use a cream-based artichoke soup?

Thanks all; I will definately try lots of these--if not all at Thanksgiving this year!

You have to be a liver fan, but my 'cook's treat' while the turkey is cooking is to broil the turkey liver w/a little butter and have it on toast.

[ludja]

Time to resurrect my first thread...

Soup is one of the parts of the Thanksgiving meal I'm willing to change from time to time. I love to have a soup, but try to keep it from being too heavy, even though I serve it in small portions.

Mayhaw Man's suggestion a few years back of an artichoke and oyster soup still intrigues me. I love the idea of some seafood to start of the meal--both for contrast and for the elegant flair I think it adds. I googled a bit and found out that artichoke oyster soup is actually a New Orleans dish. Here is a recipe: click

If MayhawMan gets a chance to read this, I wonder if this is close to your recipe?

Another seafood based soup I'm thinking of is a modified Billi Bi mussel soup from Daniel Boulud. The recipe is in "The Cafe Boulud Cookbook" and has a base of chicken stock, white wine, leek, onion, celery, mussel broth and a little creme fraiche. A little before serving watercress is stirred in and then pureed. Final soup is garnished w/cooked mussels and whipped cream w/curry powder. I made this soup in the spring and really liked it. It has a nice concentrated flavor but is not too heavy.

If I lived in New England now I might consider the Rocky Point Rhode Island Clam Chowder. It has tomatoes and paprika in it and if one went light on the potatoes it wouldn't be too heavy.

Another candidate is a soup I made earlier in the year: parsley soup garnished w/mushrooms . Strong clean flavor and not to hearty to start a Turkey dinner. Also might be nice to have some green color to start the meal.

[Kris]

I make a pumpkin cream soup every year and it's a big hit. It's quite yummy but not too rich since you use light cream instead of heavy cream.

I tried making a pumpkin apple soup one year and my family protested. So it's back to the pumpkin cream soup.

[ludja]

Some good threads on pumpkin and squash soups:

pumpkin soup

butternut squash soup

There's some nice discussion and photos of a Creme de Potiron or Autumn Squash Soup with Country Ham and Garlic Croutes soup from Wolfert's new revision of the Cooking of SouthWest France here.

[jsolomon]

Cranberry and cabbage soup looks interesting. I'm not sure it's quite at the level that I'd publish it, but a savory cranberry soup seems appropriate.

[KatieLoeb]

I'm making a Squash-Apple soup from Kathleen Daeleman's cookbook later this week. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm test driving that recipe for Thanksgiving too.

[zilla369]

Succotash Soup with leeks, corn and lima beans. I've made this several times - it's a great fall soup and an elegant way to present a sort of classic southern dish as a light soup.

Of course, it's a little less light by the time I finish it with a little heavy cream (not in the published recipe!)

[ludja]

Hmmm... Interesting ideas!

I was also intrigued by the soup described as being recently served at the *non-State* dinner for Prince Charles and Camilla.

It was variously described as "celery broth" with crispy shrimp or as a celery root-based soup. Celery and Shrimp sound like a great flavor combination but I can't quite figure out how to combne the two... The flavors also seem like they would fit in well as a start in the Thanksgiving meal.

[KatieLoeb]

The squash and apple soup came out well, albeit it a bit sweet to my taste. Roasted the halved squash and quartered peeled apples with some garlic cloves and thyme and then ran the whole mess through the blender with vegetable broth and some salt and pepper. Lots of caramelization on the cut sides of the squash and the apples led to a slightly too sweet for me result. I'd make it again with fewer apples or more squash perhaps to balance that out. Not bad, just not to my taste. Maybe a swirl of sour cream or creme fraiche would tame it a bit. I'll report back on that.

Next experiment will be roasted squash and chestnut soup.

[Gifted Gourmet]

It's already the Sunday before Thanksgiving and I have yet to decide upon my soup course ...

I want something *festive, autumnal, and not too heavy .. it can't be dairy because of the kosher issue at a meat (turkey) meal ... once had a tomato-orange soup which andiesenji and I worked on to get it perfect .. can't locate yet ...

any suggestions for a soup within *my parameters??

maybe this kind of thing omitting the cream?

[dockhl]

I always make Tomato Burgundy Soup..............(In Recipe Gullet)

since it is light but EXTREMELY flavorful. Yum !

[Gifted Gourmet]

I always make Tomato Burgundy Soup..............(In Recipe Gullet)

since it is light but EXTREMELY flavorful. Yum !

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I think that this makes the second time today that finds me thanking you, dockhl ... this soup sounds quite like something which might make the Thanksgiving table .. or even in the den before dinner begins ...

The color certainly sounds festively fallish!

[dockhl]

great minds think alike

Maybe we can hook up in central CA sometime when you are out here .......

[misgabi]

As an Australian that uses it all the time I cannot recommend highly enough butternut squash (to you americans, we call it pumpkin!!). If you roast it it is fabulous but equally so boiled in water with many onions and a splash of orange juice.

We eat this pumpkin soup all year but mainly in winter. You can add spices (curry or cummin) or just eat plain or made really gorgeous by an addition of cream.

Love the pumpkin

[viva]

Am in the process of planning the Thanksgiving menu, and need some new ideas. We've been stuck in a rut of butternut-squash and chunky chowder soups for the past several years, and folks always groan about filling up too much on a rich soup before the big meal. (Of course, the idea of just not having the soup course also met with serious disapproval from opposing camps in the Soup Wars.)

So I'm trying to think of an interesting soup that will make everyone happy. Like a soup with...

...mostly vegetables

...some kick to it

...not too heavy - enough to whet people's appetites, but not so they fill up before dinner

...make-ahead to reduce stress on T-Day

Ideas? Help!

[lcdm]

If you don't want to go heavy, how about an onion or mushroom soup.

For a little kick add some sherry pepper sauce.

Am in the process of planning the Thanksgiving menu, and need some new ideas.  We've been stuck in a rut of butternut-squash and chunky chowder soups for the past several years, and folks always groan about filling up too much on a rich soup before the big meal.  (Of course, the idea of just not having the soup course also met with serious disapproval from opposing camps in the Soup Wars.)

So I'm trying to think of an interesting soup that will make everyone happy.  Like a soup with...

...mostly vegetables

...some kick to it

...not too heavy - enough to whet people's appetites, but not so they fill up before dinner

...make-ahead to reduce stress on T-Day

Ideas?  Help!

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