Thanksgiving soups

[dockhl]

Chilled Brandied ginger-pear soup (no recipe)

or

Celery Pear Soup

Edited November 6, 2006 by dockhl (log)

[Luckylies]

what about a cold or hot borsht? you could add a kick to that! and what a festive color....

[Sentiamo]

That old Italian classic Tortellini in Brodo maybe? Just wonderful if you have spent the time on making a great broth.

Broccoli and Blue Cheese, Oyster and Saffron, Celeriac and Walnut are soups I have enjoyed this winter, but think of some other old favourites like Potage St Germaine or Vichyssoise. None of these are over-the-top rich or filling.

[Miami Danny]

Try a roasted cauliflower soup-light and elegant. There's an easy recipe at epicurious.com.

[Chihiran]

How about a no-cream carrot (or squash) curry and orange soup? I think that's what I'll be serving this year. It's really very light.

[petite tête de chou]

Apple-fennel soup or horseradish-apple soup.

[Gifted Gourmet]

a nice, helpful discussion here on various Thanksgiving soup options ... In reading them over again, I myself found some new and highly interesting options:

RICH TOMATO ORANGE SOUP

turkey consomme garnished with small almond dumplings

Roasted Pumpkin

Butternut squash with sauteed leek and chicken broth

pumpkin/sweet potato puree style soup in a chicken or turkey stock base

OYSTER AND ARTICHOKE SOUP

tons of great pumpkin soup ideas here at eGullet

butternut squash soup eGullet discussion

[KatieLoeb]

The Butternut Squash and Chestnut soup I made for a Roast Goose dinner party several years ago was excellent. I just made a standard pureed squash soup after adding some unsweetened chestnut puree and garnished it with a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil and toasted pumpkin seeds. Easy and very delicious.

[Syrah]

Jerusalem artichokes make a lovely, light creamy soup.

[jackal10]

Turkey broth with lots of diced veg

If you are upmarket you can make a sophisticated version as a clarified consomme, with sherry, and a nice garnish - maybe a royale or cubes of butternut custard, or julienne...

On Consomme: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=26540

Big list of consomme names: http://www.egullet.com/imgs/egci/consomme/consommenames.html

Consomme Esterel seems suitable

[ErinB]

I believe I will be making a carrot soup (with curry) and toasted almonds, that was in Gourmet this year. It seems pretty light and you can make it ahead.

[viva]

You guys are awesome - thanks for all the great ideas to noodle over!!!

[LaurieB]

Does anyone have a recipe for a roasted squash bisque?

Thanks, Laurie

[ludja]

Last year I made a soup which may not be considered classically traditional for Thanksgivng in most parts of the country but which I think worked well--cream of green chile soup.

Partially, I made it as a nod to a guest from New Mexico but I also liked that it used a traditinanl "new world" food although not one that the Pilgrims had access to! I served it in small portions since it is a cream-based soup before a huge meal. It works well in small portions because the soup is very flavorful.

While I do like squash and pumpkin soups I don't like to serve them before Thanksgiving dinner as I have a squash or sweet potato sidedish with the turkey and often serve sweet potato pie as one of the desserts. I'm not sure I would like to start off with sweetness either although the chilled pear soup that dockhl mentions above sounds good. Chilled soup is an interesting idea--one less burner to use on the stove and somehow chilled soups seems lighter on the palate. I also prefer to typically have a lighter bodied soup, my cream of green chile example above notwithstanding!

edited to add: This thread brings me back in time. I found eGullet while googling for some soup recipes a week before Thanksgiving that year. I joined up and started this thread as my first post!

Edited November 6, 2006 by ludja (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Does anyone have a recipe for a roasted squash bisque?

←

How about this one from Two Rivers Country Club:

Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque

[dockhl]

I'm not sure I would like to start off with sweetness either although the chilled pear soup that dockhl mentions above sounds good.  Chilled soup is an interesting idea--one less  burner to use on the stove and somehow chilled soups seems lighter on the palate.  I also prefer to typically have a lighter bodied soup, my cream of green chile example above notwithstanding!

ludja~

I agree about the sweetness, which is why the pear-celery one esp sounds good. Do you have a cream of chile recipe? I , too, don't like the repetition of the squash soup/rest of dinner thing.

In CA, our Thanksgivings are almost always warm so having a cool soup sounds appealing to me !

[Gifted Gourmet]

in today's mail I received this recipe ... for Pumpkin-Cider Soup which looks quite delicious ...

[HungryC]

We usually start T'giving dinner with seafood (shrimp/crab/oyster, with a little pork sausage) gumbo, but it is so seriously un-kosher that it doesn't fit the stated parameters! It is good made ahead and reheated, though.

[Gifted Gourmet]

but it is so seriously un-kosher that it doesn't fit the stated parameters!

←

kosher is in the eye of the beholder, Hungry C ... and it looks fine to me ...

[viva]

Update: We've gone with a curried cauliflower and apple soup from Daniel Boulud <clickety>. I realize it has a cup of cream, so it's not *quite* as light as I was looking for, but otherwise it's a winner for my starter criteria. Daniel does good soup, though.

The introduction suggests a possible lobster/shrimp topping that can easily be added to serve too - that's a maybe.

[ErinB]

Sounds great. Hmmm. Maybe I'll do that instead.

[ruthcooks]

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!

←

I'm posting a recipe for Indian River Consomme, which meets every one of your requirements!

Here it is, a tomato-beef broth-onion-orange-lemon-vermouth-basil EASY

Edited November 8, 2006 by ruthcooks (log)

[snowangel]

Over here Sam describes a cauliflower soup with curry oil. Yum! Pictoral here and here.

[merstar]

This is an outstanding soup. I used one yellow and one red pepper, upped the garlic, and subbed a 4 oz can of mild green chilies along with some Cajun hot sauce for the canned chipotle pepper:

Yellow Pepper Soup

http://www.recipezaar.com/22104

Edited November 8, 2006 by merstar (log)

[dockhl]

OMG~

I forgot about my Tomato Burgundy Soup that is so delicious ! Try this !