Soup Swap, Blogged At Last

Soup Swap is one of my very most favorite things in the world.  I am lucky to have some pretty amazing friends who do lots of cool things; this is possibly the best.  Not only is it fun, I leave with healthy, lovingly prepared meals for my family.  Winner, winner, chicken dinner, baby.  Well, sometimes vegetarian dinner, but that's cool.

I wrote about the prep work here.  Unfortunately, my soup was so delicious that we ate too much at home and I only had 5 quarts to swap.  (The soup is amazing!  I found it here!)

So, 13 friends showed up with 6 quarts (or in a few cases, 5 quarts) of soup and got ready to swap.  Here is the bounty in all of its glory.

On the menu, these delicious soups.

Pumpkin Black Bean from Anika
Tomatillo and Poblano Chili from Anne
Chestnut & Leek from Ashley
Roasted Potato & Leek with Crispy Shallot Garnish from Cecilia
Curried Butternut Squash & Pear from Christina
Thai Coconut Curry from Me
Creamy Carrot & Chickpea from Jessica, via Mark Bittman's Food Matters
Sweet Potato, Carrot & Red Lentil from Karen
Creamy Wild Rice and Smoked Turkey from Kathleen
Curried Winter Squash with Cilantro Yogurt from Kim, via Cook's Illustrated
Root Vegetable with Meatballs from Mindy
Curried Carrot Soup from Tara
Cheddar Ale from Venessa

After swapping was complete, the eating and drinking commenced.

Jess enjoyed her wine.

Anne enjoyed everything

Ashley enjoyed her PBR.

Ruby enjoyed still being awake.  (PSA: Wear your baby!)

In short, a good time was had by all.

A few words about soup swaps. We typically package our soups in freezer bags or freezer containers.  However, Anne

recently received a vacuum sealer (hooray for Christmas), and that sealed the soup quite well.  We're not sure we're totally comfortable with the chemicals in plastic or with its non-sustainability.  Anika (not pictured) used mason jars this time around.  After a few freezer accidents with mason jars in the past, I've been skeptical.  I have lost many a quart of soup to broken jars.  However, hers seem to be holding up.  We've looked into pressure canning the soups, but unless you have a soup recipe designed for canning, this can be tricky business.  You can end up with seriously over-cooked soup.

We swap frequently, maybe every 2-3 months, so we maintain a shared spreadsheet of all of the soups we've made.  Yep.  We are soup dorks and we love it.  With a spreadsheet, we can track who has made what and what has been particularly successful.  And with links to recipes, it's easy to remake soups you've gotten and loved.  This is my personal favorite, courtesy of Aaron and Hannah and Smitten Kitchen.

For more on soup swaps, go here.