Why You Should Consider Making Extra Soup For Your Dinner Party

Dinner parties are about sharing stories over an elegant table filled with drinks and, more importantly, food. And one of the best parts about throwing a dinner party is that you get to choose a theme, such as an around-the-world menu or an array of hearty entrées, sides, and desserts.

Soups may not initially come to mind when considering dinner party entrées, as they might seem too light a dish to serve guests. But as the blog Celebrate Every Day With Me discusses, soup parties have an element of warmth and comfort, especially during chilly seasons. They're also a creative way to showcase a variety of soups and toppings, including exotic flavors typically found in restaurants. Furthermore, you don't have to go crazy with side dishes since the soup is the star of the show. Salads and bread are fine, but Kitchn suggests olives, nuts, and dips as appetizers.

But the next time you make batches of soup for a crowd, consider making more — a lot more. In fact, you should probably make roughly twice the amount you usually would, and here's why.

Picture this — you make several pots of soup for a famished crowd, and they gobble it all up, only to wonder if there are any courses that will follow.

Fortunately, this can be easily averted by simply making more soup. Kitchn explains that soups don't yield as many servings as one might think, especially at dinner parties. Friends and family may go back for seconds and thirds, which means that a pot of soup may run out in no time. Also, for particularly liquid-heavy soups, folks often try to ladle a hearty mix of meat and veg and won't return to them if only broth remains. Making twice the amount of soup is the safest bet, but you can also try using smaller bowls to trick your guests into thinking they've eaten more. 

The Celebrate Every Day With Me blog notes that a soup dinner party is a great way to make different soups and show off your creativity as a home cook. For example, you could make a hearty bowl of chicken and dumplings, a light miso soup, or a roasted tomato soup. Epicurious says that this kind of party is a great excuse to make the meals ahead of time because who among us has time to whip up multiple batches of soup in one day? Since most soups are freezer-friendly, you can serve leftovers, and no one will be the wiser.