A Soup Exchange…Mmm, Mmm, Girlfriends!

• September 26th, 2008
• Celebration Ideas

When the weather turns fallish, a nice, hot bowl of soup starts to sound really good. We mentioned last week that soup would be a frugal meal to serve at a party. That same day, our real-life girlfriend and blogger Gabi emailed to tell us about a soup exchange she had last year. We thought it was such a great idea for a girls night that we wanted to share it with you.  

You’ve probably heard of cookie exchanges, but a soup exchange is novel (and more nutritious). “It has to be small,” Gabi says, “Because it’s a lot more time consuming to make enough soup to pass around, than cookies.” But, she says, the small party size creates “a nice intimate evening.” At Gabi’s soup exchange, there were 7 women total, and each brought six 6-cup freezer containers of their most delicious homemade soup, plus one 1-1/2 cup serving ready to sample. “We also enjoyed homemade bread, delicious salad, and wine, plenty of wine. It really was a very nice evening. And filling. I can’t wait to pull some yummy soup out of the freezer on my next too-overwhelming-to-cook day,” she says.

Soups on the menu at Gabi’s party were corn chowder, tomato dill, kielbasa bean, pumpkin mushroom curry, chicken tortilla, African peanut, and old fashioned chicken noodle. What a variety! If you don’t have a favorite soup recipe, there are gazillions on the web. Good homemade soup is even easy to improvise. See a step-by-step guide here. I would probably make minestrone. What’s your favorite? 

Girlfriends warm your heart; now you have a way to warm their tummies. Enjoy! 

We’d like to hear YOUR party ideas too! Use the comment form below or talk to us.

6 Comments

1. Thanks for the post! Now I’m motivated to do it again, and soon!

   Comment by Gabi — September 26, 2008 @ 7:38 am

2. Oh, and one more thing, this year I am considering having one less invitee, but still having the people who come bring the same amount of soup. Then offering the the 6 extra batches of soup to someone in the community going through a crisis, like a serious illness.

   Comment by Gabi — September 26, 2008 @ 7:40 am

3. I really like the idea of having an extra serving to give away. There’s always someone you know who could use it, whether it is a new mom, an elderly person, a widow, etc. Good thinking!

   Comment by Dawn — September 26, 2008 @ 12:14 pm

4. [...] Have  a Soup Exchange Party – It’s the perfect time of year to share recipes and taste some warm, hearty soup. Find all the details on how to do it here. [...]

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6. [...] Consider having each girlfriend bring a dish to taste and copies of the recipe to share. Our Soup Exchange party is a good [...]

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