Hosting a Dinner Party? Here's How to Make the Most Scrumptious Soup

Regular readers of this blog will know that we sometimes like to share expert advice about how to produce great meals.

Entertaining friends at home can be a very creative exercise, after all! 

Soups are a particularly great meal type to get good at, because they are so versatile. With soups, you can make them from pretty much anything, which means that you are likely to eat more of what you need to and want to, often for less money, and you are also likely to use up a lot more leftovers. That’s really the great thing about making soup: even yesterday’s dinner can probably become today’s soup pretty easily. In this article, we are going to look at some of the things you should bear in mind in order to make the best soup you can. Let’s have a look and see what needs doing.

Use The Freshest Ingredients Possible

As with most meals, the ingredients you use are often the most important part of the whole thing. With soups, of course, you can use yesterday’s leftovers - as we have said - however, you do still want to focus on using the freshest ingredients you possibly can. This means that if you have completely fresh ingredients to hand, using those is definitely better. And you don’t want to use anything more than about a day old, as you will start to notice it in the taste before you know it. Go as fresh as possible, and that freshness will come through in the finished soup.

Use The Right Tools

There is no reason that you need to make the process of soup-making harder on yourself. If you use the right tools for the job, you should find that your soup is much easier to make than otherwise. There are certain things which can really help in this respect. For example, using an immersion blender - often known as a soup wand - will provide you with a great way to blend everything up and get it to the consistency you desire. Take a look at a list of the best immersion blenders here and treat yourself to one for your next soup - you are bound to notice a profound difference.

A Little Cream Goes A Long Way

Although it is not necessary or appropriate for every soup, using a little cream can make a big difference to the final product on most occasions. This is especially true for anything where you have a particularly bitter vegetable like kale or wild garlic. Adding a dollop of cream after cooking is done and swirling it through is often the difference between a soup that people enjoy, and one that makes them go back for seconds.

Remember Sides

It is a good idea to remember that the soup is often not the only part of the whole meal. When you are serving up, it makes a big difference if you also include some fresh bread or a little salad on the side. Remembering these details often makes a big difference, and it is well worth bearing in mind if you want to make the whole meal as good as possible.

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This is a collaborative post written for WhimMagazine.com