Fall is upon us and #WinterIsComing! Don't get me wrong, I love Fall, and Winter has its moments, but it gets harder to be outside and therefore tougher to get together with family and friends. Enter Soup Night! It's the perfect excuse to get together and have some fun indoors.
My friends and I had a beach volleyball league last summer, we played every Thursday evening and always went out after for a bite to eat and drink. This was such a simple way for us to hang out each week and spend quality time together. In order to keep this quality time with friends going, I created something called Soup Night. Now, I can't take all of the credit for this, I based the idea off of something the wonderful Joanna Gaines wrote about in her magazine, Magnolia.
The idea of Soup Night is very simple and should not be formal or fancy, one person hosts, makes a pot of soup and that's it. Invite your crew and whoever can attend , comes. Guests are welcome to bring drinks, bread, soup toppings, dessert, salad, cheese, crackers, etc. or nothing at all. This gathering comes with no expectations or obligations, it's simply a reason to gather your friends and family and enjoy each others company, quality conversation, laughter, life's blessing, etc. over a bowl of soup.
Turn on Scrounge Sounds playlist for a little background music and enjoy the company of friends and family. I would even go as far as having everyone put their cell phones in a basket when they arrive to encourage full engagement and quality conversations :). This is not a must, just an idea. We didn't do this at our first Soup Night, but I want to do it....my friends that are reading this, get ready!
Also, if you want some fun questions to ask your crew, I've listed a few below that we went around and answered, it was fun and goofy, so have fun with it! I also had some trivia cards and we had fun answering those too. It's also an opportune time to plan the next Soup Night or any upcoming events that you want to lock down on everyone's calendars.
You can do your Soup Nights as frequently as you'd like, we're doing ours about once every 3 weeks-ish, it's not an exact science.
Fun Questions To Ask at Soup Night:
What are you most looking forward to about Fall?
What's your favorite holiday?
What's your favorite soup?
Who do you most admire?
If you could invite one famous person to Soup Night who would it be?
If you could only read one book for the rest of your life what would it be?
If you could only watch one TV show for the rest of your life what would it be?
If you could live anywhere where would it be?
If you could have any job in the world what would it be?
If you could have one super power what would it be?
For our first Soup Night I hosted and made a very Fall soup that I'm calling, Fall Medley Soup, There are so many delicious fall veggies and fruits in it, it was a hit! The garnishes I used really elevated the soup, so don't underestimate the power of garnishes, they can add some great flavor and allow everyone to have fun preparing their soup.
I hope you start your own Soup Night and if so please tag me! I'd love to see your Soup Nights!
Fall Medley Soup
T h e S c r o u n g e
If you don't have these exact ingredients, Scrounge with the things you have at home! You may end up creating something even better!
If you don't have fresh ginger, use ginger powder
If you don't have cauliflower rice, use regular cauliflower or do without
If you don't have turmeric, use curry powder or do without
If you don't have vegetable broth, use chicken broth or water
If you don't have an apple, try an orange or a pear
If you don't have sweet potatoes, use squash
If you don't have carrots, use more sweet potatoes or squash
If you don't have rosemary, do without or try thyme
I n g r e d i e n t s
*serves 5-6 people ( I doubled this to serve 12 people)
6-8 large Carrots
1 Yellow Onion
2-3 large Sweet Potatoes
1 Apple - I used Honey Crisp but it can be whatever kind of apple you have
2-3 pieces of Fresh ginger
1/2-1 c. Cauliflower rice or cauliflower
1/2 c. Vegetable broth or water
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/8 tsp turmeric
Sea Salt
Pepper
2-3 tbsp Olive oil
Garnishes (optional but recommended)
Thinly sliced apples
Balsamic vinegar
Crumbled Goat Cheese
Cinnamon
D i r e c t i o n s
Skin and chop carrots and sweet potatoes into chunks ( if using actual cauliflower and not cauliflower rice chop cauliflower as well)
Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in large deep skillet, for about 1 minute
Pour in chopped carrots and sweet potatoes (and cauliflower if NOT using riced)
Stir vegetables, season with sea salt and pepper and add some more olive oil to help them cook
Cook vegetables for about 10 minutes until they start get soft, continuing to stir often
While veggies are cooking chop yellow onion into large chunks and about half way through ( so about 5 mins in) add the onion into the skillet as well
If using frozen riced cauliflower add that in at the end when there is about 1-2 mins left, it just needs to get warm so doesn't need to cook long
Once veggies are soft turn off burner
Chop up apple into chunks and ginger into pieces removing all of the skin from ginger by cutting it off (the skin is very bitter so be sure to cut it all off)
You will need a blender for this next part, I have a Vitamix but that is not needed, any blender should be fine
Pour the veggie mixture into your blender, about 3/4 of the way full. You'll likely need to blend this in 2 halves, so add in half of the chopped apple pieces and half of the chopped ginger pieces to the blender
Add veggie broth or use water to add some liquid to get everything blended, you can add as much or little as you need of the liquid to get things moving but start with about 1/4 -1/2 a cup because if you add too much the soup won't be thick enough
Before blending, add in a little bit of all of the spices (approx 1/8 to 1/4 tsp since you're doing two halves, but you really can't mess this up too bad they all add such great flavor) sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary and turmeric
Begin blending everything. If you have a tamper use that to help get the veggies blended, if not that's ok you may just have to stop the blender a few times to stir things up. Blend for about 2-3 mins to make sure everything is blended smoothly. If you have a Vitamix be sure to use the soup setting, if not just blend on high
Once everything is blended pour that half out into a pot and then blend the second half by pouring in the skillet veggies, apples, ginger, spices and veggie broth or water and blend on high
Pour second half from blender into pot with first half and mix with spoon all together. The Vitamix heats up the soup so it's already hot when I take it out but if your soup isn't hot then heat it up on the stove top for a few minutes on low -medium heat
Serve soup in bowls and garnish with balsamic vinegar, crumbled goat cheese, apple slices and cinnamon
If you have leftovers store in the fridge for 1-2 days or store in the freezer, it freezes great!