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Emily is an entertaining newbie. Anna is a party pro. In The Party Project, they work together to create dinner party perfection.
After throwing one this weekend, I've determined that a Fall Soup Party is the very best kind of party.
What is a "Fall Soup Party"? It is, quite simply, a party hosted during the autumnal months for which you make soup and have your friends over. At yet, it's also more than soup, more than fall, more than friends, more than the sum of its parts. A Fall Soup Party is a vibe, an attitude, a lifestyle.
To capture this elusive feeling, I went—as I always do—to my coworker Anna, a party-hosting expert. Since she has already taught me—an amateur entertainer who lacked confidence—to host an after-work, no-cook dinner party, a cocktail party, and, finally, a three-course plated dinner, we worried that I had nothing more to learn about entertaining. Not so! Rest assured that there's still a lot of room for improvement. We decided a casual, seasonal get-together made sense as a next step, and Anna gave me tips on how to host this kind of party. Here's her advice, and what I learned along the way.
Tip 1: Forgo the Formality of a Typical Dinner Party
The whole point of a Fall Soup Party is that it isn't a dinner party. "It's a great way to have an open house–style party that feels festive, casual, and easy to pull off. This is not a sit-down dinner, it's a come-and-go-as-you-please-there-will-be-plenty-to-eat kind of event," Anna told me. "And because this isn't a sit-down party, you can invite more people. Invite 20! Or 25! However many people you think you can fit in your apartment."
I invited 20 people, and 13 showed up. I said in the invite that the party was from 3–6PM, and that people could show up whenever they wanted during that time. So guests arrived and left in waves, grabbing a bowl of soup or three when they were hungry, and then went on with their Sunday evenings. I invited coworkers and my closest friends. It all felt very loose: my friend Ally's parents were unexpectedly in town, so I told her to bring them along. (They brought a case of beer, killed it, and were probably the most fun people at the party.)
The best part was the odd assemblage of people brought together by the magical properties of soup. Normally, mixing groups gives me anxiety, but the casual nature of the party made it all feel organic and easy. Everyone was so nice and talkative and they all mixed and mingled and got along perfectly. And I wasn't holding them hostage—they could leave whenever, which relieved the pressure. It was the perfect casual vibe.
(Special shout-out to Epi Test Kitchen assistant Kat, who stayed late at the party, kept eating soup and drinking wine with me well into the evening, and peeled apples in a single strand so we could throw apple peels over our shoulders and determine the first initial of our soul mate. A lowercase "e" was mine, if you're wondering!)
Tip 2: Make Soup Ahead of Time
Anna advised that I make three soups: one puréed vegetable soup; one chunky, minestrone-like soup; and one stew. You can freewheel the vegetable soup and the stew, using Anna's guides and ratios. But I opted to use recipes. She also suggested I make one soup a day over three days to divide up the work. So I made this (admittedly complicated, but so, so delicious) adobo on Friday night. I made this creamy cauliflower soup on Saturday. And I made a double batch of this bean, escarole, and pasta number on Sunday, the day of the party.
Two of the soups were time-consuming, since the beans needed to be soaked overnight and cooked for about an hour and a half, and the adobo involved lots of steps and a long braise, but I could easily have gone simpler. Even so, this felt simple to pull off since the work was so divided. (Warning: when prepping for a soup party, you will inevitably end up chopping A LOT of onions. This party won't come without a few tears shed.)
Tip 3: Set Up a Soup Buffet
Since this isn't a formal dinner party—it isn't formal! Not formal, I say! Got that yet?—you can set the food up buffet-style and let people take a bowl of soup whenever they want.
Here's what Anna advised in terms of organizing and laying out the event:
Let guests serve themselves in the kitchen. Put two Dutch ovens on the stove over super-low heat to keep the two soups warm, and use your slow cooker on its low setting to keep the stew warm. (Do you have two Dutch ovens? I only have one and I broke the crock of my slow cooker, so I used a Dutch oven and two stock pots.) Put a ladle or big spoon in each soup so people don't cross-contaminate.
Set out a big stack of bowls. Use disposable bowls if you don't have 20 bowls (I certainly don't have 20 bowls!)—just make sure the disposable bowls are strong enough to hold hot soup. I like the ones from Sutsy Party because they're strong and cute and also compostable. I chose small bowls so people could take samplings of all three of the soups I made, which went over very well. Everyone participated in age-old soup banter and engaged in lively debates about which one was their favorite soup.
Set out a ton of spoons and napkins in a cup next to the bowls so people can grab them easily.
If you're using disposable plates, napkins, and utensils, make sure your garbage can is easily accessible and EMPTY at the start of the night. This is huge: you need to make sure your guests can easily dispose of their dishes! (I took out the trash before people arrived, but for the second time in a row while hosting a dinner party, I forgot to take out the recycling. It was soon overflowing! Take out your recycling.)
Warm your soups about 10 minutes before the party is scheduled to start, and then set them on low, low heat and try to check on them every half hour during the party to make sure they're not suddenly cold or burning. That's the only "cooking" work you have to do during the party: checking on soup temp, and refilling the punch bowl.
Which brings us to the next tip...
Tip 4: Make Punch and a Pretty, Giant Ice Cube
"Since it's fall, and since everything you're serving can be made ahead, make an apple cider punch to serve, and tell your friends to bring wine," said Anna, directing me to this simple, old-school Gourmet punch recipe. She suggested I buy enough ingredients to make four batches of punch, and replenish it throughout the night. "For extra flair, serve it in a big bowl with a decorative ice ring, but if you don't have room for that, just serve it in a pitcher."
I, oddly enough, have a beautiful punch bowl. I made an ice ring with slices of lemon and rosemary in it and froze it the day before. I made my generous colleague Joe unmold the ice ring, since I have a very real, clinical phobia of unmolding of any kind. He did a beautiful job, and the punch bowl looked so pretty and the punch was delicious. I placed cups next to the punch bowl so people could refill their own drinks—another thing that usually worries me during parties is making sure I've served everyone drinks when they need it, and this alleviates that worry! I overfilled the punch bowl, so everyone had to take tentative scoops at first so they didn't spill. Perfection is boring! I also, per Anna's advice, had two bottles of red and two bottles of white wine available. Another shout-out to Joe: he brought delicious corn muffins!
Tip 5: Skip Appetizers or Keep Them Simple.
Anna told me I didn't need to serve appetizers, but I put out a plate of my favorite crudités with chile-lime salt (I literally don't think I can have a party without them now). I also set out store-bought hummus topped with olive oil, pita chips, and a loaf of bread to eat with the soup (the bread was Anna's suggestion). And I set out bowls of crunchy things near the soup buffet so people could top their soups with some texture: deliciously crispy roasted artichoke hearts, store-bought spicy cashews, and pepitas. All of this was very quick and easy to do, but again, as per the expert, not necessary.
Tip 6: Send Guests Home with Leftover Soup
As the last round of people left, I offered take-home soup. I packaged up the adobo for my friend Crosby in an empty artichoke jar, and gave my friend Liz the last of the cauliflower soup. There were fewer leftovers for me to deal with, and I was happy to think about them having lunch to bring to work the next day.
